Bancroft,  Clinton 

The  Conspiracy  of  Capital 


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The 


Conspiracy 
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By  CLINTON  BANCROFT. 


‘£e  what  there  may  behind,  I lift  the  veiV' 


(Reprinted  from  the  Railroad  Telegrapher.) 


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GIRARD.  KANSAS: 

J.  A.  WAYLAND,  Pubtisher. 


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CONSPIRACY  or  CAPITAL. 


what  there  may  behind,  I lift  the  veil.'^ 


CLINTON  BANCROFT. 


1901. 

PUBIilSHED  BY 

J A.  WAYLAND, 

GIBAED,  KAS. 


Press  of  Appeal  to  Reason, 


O.  JAMES  BUTLER 

5130  University 
Chicago  !5,  Illinois 


CONTENTS. 


CHArTEK  I. 

"llie  Reign  of  Conflict  » 

CHAPTER  II. 

1 he  Reign  of  Cax^ital  9- 

CHAPTER  III. 

'i'he  Reign  of  Ihireason  13- 

CHAPTER  IV. 

'i  he  {'a’.n^e  15 

CHAPTER  V. 

'Hie  Reign  of  Porce  ZO 

CHAPTER  ^'I. 

'i'iie  Go\ eroinent  of  Ownership  24 

CIIAP'J'ER  VII. 

'!  lie  Remedy  20 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

home  Prineijiies  of  Indnstrial  Evolution  34 

CHAPTER  IX. 

'i  i;e  -Signs  <if  the  Slorm  4Q 

CHAPTER  X. 

'i'he  .\ttiriide  of  Wealth  Towards  Labor  44 

( HAPTCR  XI. 

.'■h  nie  Niistakes  of  Orgaiu.^cd  Labor  Ol 

CilAPTLR  Xil. 

'll.e  Captains  of  indiisrry  C2 


CONTENTS 


It 

CHAPTER  XIII, 

Individualism  C'J 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Cabal  of  Property  77 

CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Trusts  86 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

'The  Employer’s  Argument  9li 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Tribe  of  Attorneys-at-Law  KiS 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Ways  and  Means  113 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Political  Revolution  124 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  New  Regime  ■'34 


Tfie  Conspiracu  of  Capitaf, 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  EEIGH  OP  CONFLICT. 


MPON  justice  in  material  things,  must  justice  in  all 
things  else  at  last  depend.  This  is  the  primal  law 
of  social  life,  the  foundation  principle  of  order  and 
government  among  men.  Man’s  first  right  is  here, 
and  here,  his  first  duty — to  secure  this  justice  for  himself,  to 
render  it  sacredly  to  others.  Let  this  law  be  first  obeyed  and 
“all  things  else  shall  be  added  unto  you,”  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  Let  it  be  denied  and  the  power  of  op- 
pression at  once  raises  his  dark  form  upon  the  earth.  The 
principle  involves  the  very  right  of  existence  itself.  Upon 
things  material  life  itself  depends.  Food,  raiment,  shelter — 
upon  the  powder  to  secure  these,  and  upon  the  right  to  just  ac- 
cess to  the  means  of  procuring  them,  practically  depend  all 
other  human  rights  and  powers.  To  limit  or  destroy  this  right 
or  this  power,  is  to  affect  vitally  every  other  right  and  power 
of  man. 

To  attack  this  primal  law  has  always  been  to  precipitate  a 
conflict.  To  succeed  in  the  attack  has  always  resulted  in  the 
death  of  the  vanquished  or  his  subjugation,  diseased  depend- 
ence and  mental  and  moral  degradation.  To  resist  such  at- 
tacks is  therefore  an  inherent  and  instinctive  right,  necessary, 
inalienable  and  never  to  be  destroyed.  It  may  be  subdued, 
become  dormant  and  latent,  but  occasion  and  opportunity 
ever  revive  it  again  into  full  activity.  Therefore  it  is  declared 
that  this  principle  of  justice  in  material  things  is  the  primal 
law,  not  only  of  physical  life  itself,  but  by  virtue  thereof  is 
the  foundation  principle  of  social  order  as  weU. 

To  violate  it,  then;  to  pass  the  right  and  duty  it  involves, 
to  go  on  to  others,  social,  moral  or  religious,  however  grand, 
noble  or  inspiring,  is  but  to  pass  from  disappointment  to  dis- 
appointment, from  failure  to  failure  and  to  go  on  to  endless 
conflict,  to  anarchy  and  final  chaos. 

The  history  of  mankind  has  been  but  the  long  and  bloody 


G 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


record  of  this  last  truth,  written  and  rewritten  ag-ain  and 
again  in  the  ceaseless  dissensions  among  men,  the  fall  of  eii:- 
pires  and  the  degradations  of  peoples.  The  riots,  the  rel^ell- 
ions,  the  wars,  the  revolutions  of  the  past  and  the  present 
have  been  and  are  in  the  largest  part  but  The  Thunderiugs  <if 
this  outraged  law.  And  today,  to  see  the  results  of  its  awftd 
transgressing,  we  have  but  to  look  forth  upon  the  condirion 
that  confronts  organized  mankind  everywhere  Througiumt 
the  world. 

Let  us  pause  for  a moment  and  see  what  that  condition  is. 

With  us,  its  proudest  exponents,  it  is  labeled  civiiizatim.. 
But  lift  the  covering  of  a name  and  look  upon  the  naked  thing 
beneath  and  behold!  chaos,  surcharged  witli  the  spirit  of  heli. 
Bend  low  and  peer  beneath  the  veil  again  and  see!  a v.-orld 
strife,  an  universal  struggle,  unnatural  conflict,  never  ceasing, 
merciless  and  pitiless;  a seething  multitude  desperately  fight- 
ing each  other,  with  hearts  black  with  deadly  cunning,  ferocity, 
distrust,  envy,  jealousy  and  hatred;  an  agony  of  fear,  hope, 
despair  possessing  them,  yet  strange  to  say  each  bears,  some 
high  aloft,  some  trailing  in  the  dust,  a banner  flaunting  these 
mottoes,  “Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  others  should  do  unto 
you,”  and  “Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;”  but,  however  borne, 
the  bearers  fight  each  other  with  equal  fierceness. 

Behold  knowledge  and  strength,  civilized!  christianized! 
Knowledge  and  strength  pushing  ignorance  and  weakness  to 
the  wall,  riding  upon  their  neeks,  living  upon  their'  blood, 
trampling  them  beneath  their  feet!  See  the  sacred  power  to 
serve  itself  demanding  servitude!  See  the  myriad  bands  of 
despoiled  labor,  rank  on  rank,  crowding,  driving  each  other  to 
the  slave  blocks  of  the  masters  of  capital,  the  capital  itself  or 
Nature  has  created,  battling  with  each  other  for  the  privilege, 
and  him  who  fails  an  outcast  and  a criminal,  perishing  miser- 
ably or  living  a life  more  dreadful  than  deatk  itself.  Behold, 
selfishness  enthroned!  faith,  its  jester!  hope,  its  purveyor! 
charity,  its  hypocrite! 

Turn  where  we  will,  we  see  appalling  evidences  of  wasted 
energies,  perverted  power  and  prostituted  opportunity.  Every- 
where we  see  confliet  where  there  should  be  peace;  master- 
ship where  there  should  be  brotherhood;  poverty  where  there 
should  be  competence;  oppression  where  there  should  be  gen- 
erous service.  Distortion,  deformity,  retroversion,  everywhere 


THE  EEIGN  OF  CONFLICT. 


7 


greet  tlie  senses  of  order  and  right  condition.  Violence  rules 
the  affairs  of  men,  the  violence,  not  so  much  of  actual  physi- 
cal force,  as  the  violence  of  vantage,  fraud  and  indirection, 
the  violence  of-  irresponsible  power  working  through  conven- 
tional forms  and  customs  founded  when  might  made  right  and 
the  animal  reigned  in  man. 

Industrial  and  social  conditions  today,  no  less  than  in 
times  past,  present  the  shameful  and  awful  spectacle  of  a 
world,  the  current  of  whose  ethics  both  of  reason  and  religion 
runs  counter  to  its  industrial  and  social  practices,  whose  natur- 
al laws  are  superseded  by  contradicting  customs  and  whose 
golden  rule,  the  fundamental  principle  of  social  order  is  practi- 
cally declared  both  by  its  prophets  and  its  people  in  its  primal 
and  only  vital  application,  absurd  and  impossible  to  the  last 
degree. 

To  turn  from  “glittering  generalities”  to  a few  of  the  most 
glaring  facts,  we  are  confronted  ndth  actual  conditions  so  uni- 
versally and  inevitably  presaging  national  degeneration,  so 
distinctly  premonitory  of  social  ruin,  that  patriotic  men  and 
women,  the  friends  of  liberty  and  human  advancement,  may 
well  stand  appalled  at  the  prospect. 

Take  this  astounding  and  incredible  fact  and  consider  well 
all  what  it  means. 

Oout  of  eighty  millions  of  our  population  more  than 
fifty  millions  are  absolutely  landless,  homeless  and  with- 
out means  of  employment  except  as  the  owners  of  these  price- 
less and  necessary  things  have  given  access  to  them.  Let  the 
few  legal  owners  and  credit-holders  of  the  land,  the  homes, 
the  factories,  the  mills,  and  all  the  thousand  means  and  ma- 
chinery of  production,  exercise  their  “legal”  rights  in  concert 
for  a moment  and  bid  their  dependents  move  on — and  what 
examples  of  despotism  or  chattel  slavery  in  the  past  could 
equal  the  spectacle  that  would  be  presented  by  this 
possible  modern  exercise  of  lawful  authority?  Be 
merciful  and  let  this  mighty  throng  of  depend- 
ent people  keep  their  places,  even  at  the  light 

tenure  of  their  master’s  will;  let  them  still  toil  and  sweat 
to  buy  their  never  paid  up  “right”  to  a foot-hold  upon  tlic 
earth,  to  their  “places”  in  its  workshops  and  mines,  its  fiel-’v 
and  factories  and  offices,  to  their  access  to  the  means  of  pro- 
ducing their  food,  raiment  and  shelter,  and  still  there  are  m>>re 


8 


THE  CONSPIHACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


than  three  millions  of  men  for  whom  there  are  no  places,  no 
employment,  no  access  to  anything  but  such  cold  alms  as  m tv 
be  thrown  them;  and  these,  the  terror  of  the  “place-holders,” 
the  employed,  are  ever  increasing.  Every  advance  of  science 
over  the  forces  of  Nature,  and  of  art  over  muscular  power, 
every  development  of  the  organizing  faculty,  every  aildition 
to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge  affecting  m,iterial  things, 
but  adds  to  the  number  of  this  great  concourse  of  permanent- 
ly unemployed  and  increases  the  terror  of  t.hc  “place-holders” 
above  them,  next  ready  to  fall  into  their  rar.!-;s,  ami  intensi- 
fies the  already  great  and  widespread  uneasiness  of  society  in 
general.  This  is  the  most  significant  phenomenon  of  modern 
times  and  the  most  ominous  of  direful  consequences. 

When  the  very  forces  that  should  make  for  social  order, 
man’s  happiness  and  general  improvement,  make  for  the  di- 
rect opposites — social  ruin,  misery  and  retrogression;  when 
increasing  xvnowledge  means  increasing  evils;  when  develop- 
ing powers  and  faculties  mean  developing  despotism  and  op- 
pression; when  progress  means  progressive  poverty  and  deg- 
radation of  the  masses,  surely  it  is  time  to  change  the  direction 
of  our  progress  and  power  and  knowledge.  What  could  bet- 
ter show  the  ill-adaptedness  of  ancient,  industrial  and  social 
systems  to  modern  conditions;  najq  what  could  more  clearly 
demonstrate  the  inherent  evil  of  those  old  ways  of  doing 
things  and  the  irremedial  viciousness  of  their  effects  on  hu- 
man progress. 


THE  EEIGN  OF  CAPITAL. 


9 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  REIGN  of  CAPITAL. 

After  thousands  of  years  of  historic  intellectual  and 
moral  development,  governmental  and  industrial  or- 
ganization and  material  improvement,  vpe  find  no 
substantial  advancement  in  the  condition  of  the 
great  mass  of  mankind.  After  nineteen  centuries  under  the 
light  of  the  Golden  Rule,  after  five  centuries  of  planetary  ex- 
pansion adding  three-quarters  of  the  globe  to  the  habitable 
regions  of  civilized  man,  after  two  centuries  of  the  greatest 
agitation  of  the  rights  of  man  and  the  most  wonderful  exten- 
sion of  human  dominion  over  the  powers  of  nature  and  the  ap- 
plication of  them  to  the  production  of  wealth,  so  that  one 
man  may  feed  a thousand;  after  all  this,  want  and  misery 
and  their  consequent  physical  and  moral  degradation  have  not 
decreased  in  intensity  among  the  masses  of  the  people,  actual 
liberty  has  made  but  little  progress,  and  the  reign  of  cap- 
ital, wilder  yet,  and  yet  more  pitiless,  still  goes  on.  Irrespon- 
sible power  still  exploits  the  masses  in  the  only  field  ever  worth 
its  while — the  industrial — marshals  them  in  contending  hosts, 
and  parcels  its  spoil,  human  and  other,  among  its  favorites. 
The  barons  of  commerce  and  trade  and  industry  still  lord  it 
over  the  people,  exacting  service,  levying  tribute,  and  dispens- 
ing judgment  of  happiness  and  misery,  life  and  death  at  pleas- 
ure. Their  retinues  of  retainers  and  conscripts,  royal  in  their 
multitude,  would  shame  the  feudal  lords  of  old,  nay,  the  kings 
and  despots  of  the  most  slavish  times.  As  it  ever  has  been, 
labor  is  still  the  drudge  of  capital  ownership,  and  the  com- 
mon people  still  but  the  pawns  of  irresponsible  power. 

Three  thousand  men  control  over  half  the  wealth  of  the 
country — wealth  that  the  kingdoms  of  the  past  rolled  to- 
gether would  not  equal.  Think  of  it,  you  men  who  labor,  and 
ponder  well  what  it  means.  A handful  of  your  fellow  creatures 
with  rights  no  greater  than  those  of  any  common  man,  con- 
trolling access  to  one-half  the  people’s  means  of  earning  a 
living!  standing  guard  over  one-half  of  the  producing  means 


10 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


of  the  nation;  and  this  the  dominant  half,  the  great  monopo- 
lized industries,  the  trusts,  the  public  corporations,  that  iJrac- 
tically  have  the  power  to  tax  at  will  the  other  half  of  our 
producing  capital  and  the  labor  therein  employed;  and  this 
other  half,  the  subservient  half,  under  the  dirct  ownership 
and  control  of  another  small  body  of  men,  a few  hundred  thou- 
sand or  so!  Think  what  it  means,  ye  lovers  of  liberty,  who 
are  striving  for  greater  political  power  for  the  masses! 
Think  of  it,  ye  philanthropists,  who  are  striving  for  the  up- 
lift of  humanity!  Ponder  it  well,  ye  moralists,  who  would 
purify  and  ennoble  and  broaden  the  lines  of  the  multitude. 
The  fountain  of  physical  life  owned  and  controlled,  legally, 
lawfully,  owned  and  controlled  by  the  few!  Millions  with  no 
“right”  to  a foot  of  the  earth  except  as  a few  may  grant  it 
to  them!  Millions  without  even  an  opportunity  to  labor  ex- 
cept as  the  few  may  x>ermit!  ilillions  dependent  for  food,  rai- 
ment and  shelter  upon  the  artificial  “rights”  of  a handful  of 
their  fellows;  after  that,  what  meaning  or  value  have  these 
inalienable  rights  of  the  constitution,  the  “right  to  life,  lib- 
erty and  the  pursuit  of  happiness?”  After  that,  what  mean- 
ing or  value  has  personal  freedom,  constitutional  authority, 
political  privilege,  or  moral  opportunity?  After  that,  what/ 
meaning  or  value  have  noble  ideals,  pure  aspirations,  or  right 
ambitious?  Stand  between  the  multitude  and  their  means  of 
life,  deny  them  the  right  to  justice  in  material  things,  and 
what  meaning  or  value  have  all  these  other  rights  and  priv- 
ileges about  which  so  much  sentiment  is  expended  in  poetry 
and  eloquence  and  song?  Look  at  our  national  condition  to- 
clay,  and  see  what  meaning  thej'  have.  Individual  freedom 
chained  to  industrial  servitude.  Constitutional  authority,  the 
tool  of  private  capital;  political  privilege  the  mockery  and 
shame  of  the  people,  and  moral  opportunity  dwarfed  and  de- 
stroyed by  material  necessities. 

In  the  industrial  world  we  find  an  industrial  system, 
which,  differing  practically  in  no  wise  from  that  of  all  times 
past,  has  developed  conditions  relatively  not  better,  but  worse 
than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  world.  For  under 
greater  moral  enlightenment,  it  still  reverses  every  principle 
of  justice,  equity  and  morality.  Xow,  as  formerly,  it  is  un- 
profitabie  to  work.  To  labor  is  still  the  one  thing  men  can- 
not afford  to  do.  The  God-made  land  is  still  abandoned  for 


THE  KEIGN  OF  CAPITAL. 


11 


man-made  cities.  Men  crowd  to  the  non-productive  occupa- 
tions. The  trade  of  the  parasite  is  the  one  most  honored  and 
profitable;  the  trade  of  the  producer,  the  most  despised  and 
unrewarded.  Still  labor  biiilds  the  palace  and  lives  in 
the  hovel,  still  weaves  the  silk  and  wears  the  rags,  still  pro- 
duces the  food  of  life  and  luxury  and  is  forbidden  to  x^artake. 
Still  it  plows  and  sows  and  reaps,  and  still  the  grain  disap- 
pears from  its  grasp.  The  primal  injustice  still  x^revails.  Past 
it  the  world  may  not  iJroceed.  In  every  field  of  social  en- 
deavor progress  is  but  as  a treadmill  until  this  fundamental 
wrong  is  righted.  The  rights  of  labor  are  foundation  rights 
upon  which  alone  social  order  exists.  Evil  there  is  evil  ev- 
erywhere, and  conflict  there  is  conflict  throughout  the  realm 
of  organized  mankind. 

In  the  political  world  the  same  mad  carnival  of  evil  there- 
fore prevails  that  exists  in  the  industrial.  In  its  condition  we 
see  the  most  notable  illustration  of  the  truth  of  our  x^rimal 
law — upon  justice  in  material  things  must  justice  in  all  things 
else  at  last  depend.  Its  violation  is  the  fundamental  wrong; 
and  no  social,  political  or  moral  ideals  can  ever  be  built  ux^on 
such  a wrong.  Evil  here  is  corruption  of  the  fountain,  and  its 
waters  can  never  be  purified  bj^  any  application  of  rights,  priv- 
ileges, duties  or  ideals  further  down  the  stream. 

Our  attempt  to  engraft  political  democracy  upon  an  indus- 
trial despotism,  to  exercise  political  rights  before  possessing 
industrial  rights,  to  inaugurate  a just  political  government  be- 
fore a just  industrial  government,  to  make  political  power  re- 
sponsible to  the  people  and  leave  industrial  power  to  any  ir- 
responsible hand  that  may  be  able  to  grasp  it,  to  have  political 
freedom  flow  from  industrial  dependence,  has  been  but  to  poi- 
son good  with  evil,  to  expect  truth  from  error,  to  hope  incor- 
Tuption  from  corruption.  Poxnilar  politics  is  but  the  political 
statement  of  industrial  conditions,  and  in  the  terms  of  that 
statement  it  is  anarchy  where  it  is  not  already  despotism,  and 
corrupting  conflict  where  there  is  not  already  foiil  subjuga- 
tion. Popular  government  does  not  exist.  Suffrage  is  our 
mockery  and  shame.  The  people  are  practically  as  powerless 
to  effect  their  will  in  government  in  any  vital  matter  as  are 
the  subjects  of  the  czar  or  the  sultan.  Capital-ownership 
rules — rules  as  it  always  has  done,  as  it  always  will  do;  rules 
in  the  hands  of  the  few,  by  force  or  by  fraud  as  it  necessarily 


12 


HE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


must.  With  us  as  yet,  it  rules  by  fraud,  by  indirection,  cor- 
ruption and  downright  defiance  of  statutes  and  constitutions. 
From  hustings  to  office,  all  is  a wdld  orgie  of  deceit,  trickerj’, 
debauchery  and  corruption.  Parties,  platforms,  suffrage — are 
the  baubles  of  the  people  and  keep  them  amused.  Courts,  coun- 
cils, legislatures,  congresses  and  executives,  ostensibly  from 
the  people,  are  but  the  outward  show;  the  real  power  that  gov- 
erns is  the  ownership  of  organized  capital.  For  the  owner- 
ship of  organized  capital  controls  the  production  and  distribu- 
tion of  material  things  and  control  of  these  means  control  of 
life,  distribution  of  affluence,  competence  and  poverty. 

Rule  it  must,  necessarily  and  iuevitablj’,  by  direction  or 
indirection,  by  force  or  fraud,  if  the  few  are  the  owners.  And 
when  fraud  fails,  force  is  ever  ready  at  its  hand,  and  force  is 
to  be  forthcoming-  withal.  It  needs  must  come.  Indirection 
fails  at  last.  Poverty  grows.  The  army  of  the  defrauded 
multix^lies.  The  “monster  wdth  the  manj-  heads”  must  be  con- 
trolled, and  ownership  is  marshalling  “authority”  to  enforce 
the  needed  control.  The  signs  are  many  and  certain.  Consti- 
tutions and  statutes  and  court  decrees  are  even  now  being 
stealthily  and  rapidly  shaped  to  that  end.  Authority  already 
well  knows  its  master.  The  great  labor  centers  today  are 
practically  under  marshal  surveillance.  No  pretext  is  left  un- 
used to  increase  the  army  and  navy,  to  build  and  equip  arms 
and  ordnance  plants,  to  enlarge  barracks  and  to  make  things 
safe  generally.  The  means  of  transportation  and  communi- 
cation are  under  especial  charge.  Despotic  censorship  is  a 
living  fact.  Freedom  of  speech  is  already  curtailed.  The  free 
press  no  longer  exists.  Industrial  coercion  has  been  joined 
to  fraud,  and  open  force  now  eomes  in  the  train  of  both.  The 
political  must  ever  come  to  the  level  of  the  industrial.  Con- 
flict and  despotism  in  industry  means  despotism  and  chaos  in 
government.  Imperialism  has  succeeded  democracy. 


THE  REIGN  OF  UNREASON 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  REIGN  OF  UNREASON. 

AS  the  industrial  shapes  the  political,  so  does  it  mold 
the  moral  status  of  a people.  No  sublime  truths,  no 
regenerating  principles,  no  high  ideals  can  make  any 
great  practical  progress  nor  effect  any  general  con- 
crete results  among  industrial  dependents,  taking  them  in 
mass  and  as  a whole.  The  ground  current  is  in  the  wrong 
direction.  Injustice  in  material  things  forbids  development 
,in  every  faculty  of  our  being.  It  nullifies  all  right  effort.  Erected 
into  a system  and  molded  into  a law,  its  influence  is  so 
deadly  and  paralyzing  as  fo  desfroy  all  practical  understand- 
ing and  appreciation  of  the  highest  ethical  principles.  So 
.erosive  and  corrupting  is  its  power,  that  after  two  thousand 
years  of  agitation,  admiration  and  worship  of  the  most  pro- 
found ethical  ideal  in  the  universe,  its  most  enlightened  and 
.conscientious  devotees  among  its  priests  and  apostles  as  well 
.as  laymen,  calmly  and  unquestioningly  accept  conditions  and 
conform  to  systems  which  not  only  directly  destroy  and  make 
impossible  that  ideal,  but  which  daily  and  hourly  results  in 
the  most  appalling  and  far-reaching  misery,  inhumanity  and 
crime.  Nay,  not  only  do  they  accept  and  conform  to  such  con- 
ditions and  systems,  but  they  actively  defend,  conserve  and 
.extend  them.  Glorifjdng  service,  they  dishonor  it  in  pracvlce; 
j)reaching  brotherhood,  they  practice  mastership;  deifying 
jlove,  they  daily  profane  it  in  their  lives.  Coming  up  from  the 
realm  of  material  things  the  same  reign  of  conflict  and  chaos 
prevails  in  the  moral  world  as  in  the  industrial.  Professions 
rand  practice  clash.  Hypocrisy  holds  high  revel.  The  people 
draw  aloof  from  the  ehurch.  The  anchors  of  society  and  so- 
ecial  life  drag.  A noted  writer,  summing  up  the  situation,  says: 
“The  note  of  desperation  sounds  through  the  tumult  of 
.our  lives  in  the  twilight  of  the  waning  centnry  as  a prophecy 
of  the  coming  night.  Everywhere  we  observe  this  spirit  trans- 
lating itself  into  acts  and  phenomena.  In  religion,  the  repair 
of  creeds  outworn,  the  resnrrection  of  the  crude  and  discarded 
•beliefs  of  antiquity  and  the  piecing  of  new  ones  from  the  old. 


14 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


fn  politics,  the  spirit  of  anarchism,  corruption  and  despotism^ 
In  industry,  monstrous  animosities  and  destructive  struggles 
between  labor  and  capital;  and  through  it  5.11,  wild  aspirations 
and  insane  reaching's  for  impossible  advantage.  In  literature. 
It  manifests  itself  in  realism;  in  art,  impressionalism;  and  in 
both  as  much  else  as  is  false  and  extravagant  as  it  is  possible 
to  name.  In  morals  it  has  gone  to  the  length  of  den.^  iug  the  ex- 
pediency of  morality — everywhere  a wild  welter  of  action,  of 
thought  and  a cutting  loose  from  all  that  is  conservative  and 
restraining — a reign  of  unreason.” 

And  yet  the  earth  is  fair  to  look  ui^on  and  exceeding  gen- 
erous to  man.  Her  springtime  and  harvest  never  faileth.  Her 
stores  are  inexhaustible.  The  machinerj'  and  science  of  man 
applied  to  nature  and  its  i^roducts  may  in  three  months  pro- 
duce enough  to  supplj^  all  abvindantlj'  for  a year.  With  a modi- 
cum of  the  labor  now  expended  and  wasted,  each  could  be  fur- 
nished with  a mansion,  be  arrayed  in  “purple  and  fine  linen  and 
feast  sumptuously  every  day.”  Nay,  it  is  passing  easy  to  pro- 
vide all  royally  and  to  repletion  with  all  things  reasonable 
to  be  desired;  so  easy,  that  even  now,  illy  organized  as  indus- 
try is  today,  a syndicate  of  trusts  might  well  undertake  and 
guarantee  to  do  all  this  and  do  it  well;  and  some  day  it  wTll 
be  so  done;  but  the  syndicate  will  be  the  syndicate  of  the  peo- 
ple and  its  operation  will  be  called  government. 

But  if  so  easy  why  the  awful  condition  of  today?  Why  is 
labor  that  produces  the  bread,  the  raiment  and  the  shelter  for 
the  world,  hungry,  naked  and  paying  rent  for  the  privilege  of 
occui^ying  a place  on  the  earth,  while  those  who  labor  not,  have 
all?  Why  turns  the  toiler  cold  with  the  fear  of  losing  his 
job,  and  w’hy  does  his  heart  stand  still  with  terror  when  he 
has  lost  it?  Why  the  nameless  dread  of  tomorrow  in  a mil- 
lion hearts  today?  AMiy  the  glutted  markets  and  barns  burst- 
ing with  i^lenty,  and  the  i^inched,  ill-fed  and  starving  multi- 
tude? fMiy  the  warehouse  piled  to  the  roof,  and  the  ragged, 
patched,  ill-clothed  and  ill-provided  myriads  of  the  earth?  Why 
the  abandoned  farms,  the  silent  factories  and  mills  with  their 
wonderful  machinery,  the  closed  mines,  the  idle  hands  seeking 
vainly  and  ititifully  for  work,  and  so  many  in  want  and  in  the 
shadow  of  it?  Why  the  unlimited  resources  of  nature,  the  un- 
limited power  of  man  to  produce,  his  unlimited  capacity  to 
use  and  his  miserably  limited  power  to  buy?  Why  the  luxury. 


THE  EEIGN  OF  UNEEASON. 


15. 


the  leisure  and  the  ownership  of  the  earth  to  the  parasite  class 
which  produces  nothing,  and  the  drudgery  and  slavery  and  the 
emptiness  of  poverty  to  the  laboring  class  which  produces  ev- 
erything? Whj''  all  this  in  industry,  and  in  politics,  corrup- 
tion, coercion  and  threatened  force;  and  in  religion,  hypocrisy 
and  the  practical  perversion  and  profanation  of  a^l  high  ideals? 
Why  the  strife  among  them  all?  Why  everywhere  this  veiled 
cannabalism,  this  irony  of  barbarism,  this  refinement  of  tor- 
ture called  Christian  civilization?  Why  throughoiit  the  body 
social,  the  natural  antithesis  of  warring  atoms,  does  this  in- 
sensate reign  of  insane  conflict  rage?  The  cause  has  been  in- 
dicated, we  will  examine  it  a little  more  in  detail. 


16 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OE  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTEPi  IV. 


THE  CAUSE. 

AS  we  have  seen,  the  condition  that  prevails  throughout 
the  world,  in  every  department  of  social  ac- 
tivity is  one  of  conflict,  strife  and  struggle, 

man  wdth  man,  man  with  combinations  of  men 
and  combination  wdth  combination;  and  everywhere  hu- 
manity the  victim.  And  yet  man  is  a social  creature. 

Naturally  he  delights  in  the  society  of  his  fellows.  Instinct 

and  reason  and  the  habit  of  ages  incline  him  to  association 
with  his  kind.  He  realizes  the  mighty  potentialities  of  such  as- 
sociation in  its  material  advantage,  its  mental  development, 
its  moral  uplift.  And  yet,  neither  instinct  nor  reason  nor  the 
habit  of  aeons,  have  sufliced  to  create  a rightly  organized  so- 
ciety nor  a just  association  of  men.  Indeed,  the  result  is  the 
antithesis  of  society;  for  society  and  conflict  are  opposites, 
and  an  association  of  hostile  and  warring  atoms  15  a perver- 
sion of  the  term. 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  incredible  and  unnatural  condi- 
tion? There  are  a thousand  causes,  results  that  have  in  turn 
become  causes  and  pile  yet  higher  the  heap  of  human  miseries 
and  perplexities,  but  at  the  bottom  there  is  but  one  cause. 

One  man  believes  it  is  intemperance,  another  that  it  is 
money,  another  monopoly,  another  competition,  another 
politics,  another  taxes,  and  each  of  these  Is  subdivided 
into  many  ditfering  particulars  carrying  with  them  each  its 
greater  or  lesser  hosts  of  disciples  and  adherents.  All  are 
causes,  all  more  or  less  fertile  of  evil,  yielding  their  hundred 
or  their  thousand-fold  to  the  diseased  atoms  of  society.  But 
the  underlying  cause,  of  which  all  others  are  but  manifesta- 
tions or  forms,  the  fundamental,  ultimate  cause  in  its  practical, 
concrete  aspects,  so  far  as  the  outward  man  is  concerned,  may 
be  Anally  traced  in  every  instance  to  the  violation  of  the  primal 
law  of  social  order — upon  justice  in  material  things  must  jus- 
tice in  all  things  else  at  last  depend. 

In  its  last  analysis  of  course,  the  moving  cause  to  the  viola- 


THE  CAUSE. 


n 


tiou  of  this  law  must  be  sought  in  the  mental  state  of  the  in- 
dividuals who  go  to  make  up  society.  That  is  to  say — it  is 
man  himself,  his  savagei-y,  his  selfishness,  his  incompetence, 
in  all  their  forms  of  envy,  distrust,  malice,  avarice  and  ambi- 
tion that  the  final  inward  cause  of  all  individual  and  social 
evil  will  be  found  to  exist. 

But,  as  in  the  beginning,  the  first  issue  of  these  selfish  and 
savage  qualities  upon  the  surface  of  things  was  in  attacks  upon 
the  material  rights  of  others,  the  right  to  place,  to  possession, 
to  the  products  of  labor;  and  as  the  prevailing  traditions,  laws, 
customs  and  systems  of  today  are  largely  and  practically 
founded  upon  the  material  conditions  finally  resulting  from 
such  attacks,  so  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  practically  the 
fundamental  cause  of  the  continued  reign  of  conflict  among, 
meu,  with  the  constant  and  almost  irresistible  tendency  of 
society  to  revert  to  anarchy  and  chaos,  may  be  found  only  as 
stated,  in  the  violation  of  the  foundation  law  of  rightly  or- 
ganized society — material  justice. 

Once  attention  is  directed  to  this  vital  truth  and  considera- 
tion is  given  to  the  fact  that  a denial  of  justice  in  material 
things  strikes  at  the  base  of  all  human  activity,  the  physical, 
life,  the  material  body,  upon  whose  full  and  free  development 
must  depend  1«he  right  development  of  all  the  powers  and  qual- 
ities of  soul  itself;  once  these  truths  and  their  deep  and  awful 
meaning  are  brought  home  to  us,  we  stand  appalled  at  the 
prospect  before  mankind;  for  upon  the  violation  of  this  prime 
social  law  has  been  reared  the  whole  super-structure  of  so- 
ciety— the  laws,  the  customs,  the  systems,  and  organizations 
of  men,  industrial,  social,  political  and  religious. 

Think  of  it,  you  who  have  the  cause  of  humanity  at  heart, 
who  hope  for  our  people  a high  destiny,  who  love  your  country, 
your  friends  and  your  families;  consider  it  well  and  cease  to 
wonder  at  the  mysterious  virus  that  poisons  every  channel 
of  social  life,  develops  its  deadly  disease  in  every  organiza- 
tion of  man,  and  carries  its  awful  contagion  to  the  very  altar 
of  science  and  religion.  Eeflect  upon  it — that  every  organiza- 
tion and  activity  m society  has  a direct  physical  dependence 
upon  industrial  organization  and  that  everywhere  we  find  in- 
dustrial organization,  founded  upon  systems  that  violate  the 
fundamental  social  law  of  material  justice;  reflect  further 
that  this  violation  is  a direct  and  ever-present  threat  made 


V 


is 


'The  conspiracy  of  capital. 


daily  and  holiidy  by  every  man  against  the  phy.sical  life  and 
well-being  of  every  other  man — a threat  against  which  each 
must  daily  and  hourly  guard  himself,  and  is  it  any  wonder  that 
society  is  in  a state  of  turmoil  and  conflict,  that  power  is  per- 
verted to  selflsh  ends,  knowledge  prostituted  to  lowest  pur- 
poses, and  religion  made  but  the  cloak  of  hypocrisy.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  organization  ends  in  despotism  or  dissolution; 
progress  in  degeneration  and  reform  in  disappointment.  Is 
It  any  wonder  that  neighbor  is  arrayed  against  neighbor, 
friend  against  friend,  and  brother  against  brother,  and  that 
love  is  an  unknown  power  in  the  world.  Is  not  the  wonder 
Pftther  that  society  exists,  and  that  such  words  as  neighbor, 
friendship,  brotherhood  and  love  are  known  among  men.  tVith 
such  a rotting  evil  at  the  heart  of  social  life,  rottenness  and 
evil  must  of  necessity  characterize  every  organ  and  function, 
and  disease  and  distortion  and  degeneration  and  deformity 
must  everywhere  abound. 

Here  at  the  base  of  material  life  lies  the  apparent  cause 
of  causes  of  evil  among  organized  men.  The  truth  of  it  is  sub- 
ject to  the  most  satisfjdng  demonstration.  That  the  cause  of 
conflict  and  all  its  train  of  evils  lies  in  a reversal  of  the  basic 
principle  of  association,  in  a violation  of  the  primal  law  of  so- 
cial order — justice  in  material  things;  that  this  is  the  founda- 
tion law  of  laws  among  men  may  best  be  shown  by  supposing 
a state  in  which  the  law  is  observed  and  justice  in  material 
things  prevails.  Suppose  that  to  every  man  is  restored  his  in- 
alienable right  to  a place  upon  the  earth,  to  every  one  denied 
the  wrong  of  a larger  holding  than  he  can  use,  to  every  one  is 
granted  the  products  of  his  labor  unsealed  in  exchange  by 
profit,  and  undiminished  in  distribution  by  rent,  interest  or 
unjust  taxes;  suppose  that  in  distribution  and  exchange  the 
fraud  of  money  as  a thing  of  intrinsic  value  is  suppressed  and 
money  as  the  representative  of  an  earned  value  deposited  with 
society,  or  an  order  on  labor  for  labor  rendered  is  established 
among  mem  Suppose  that  to  every  one  is  given  the  access  to 
the  means  of  production  without  the  intermediary  of  a rent- 
exacting owner  or  a profit  demanding  employer.  Suppose  in 
short,  that  the  right  and  opportunity  of  robbery  and  theft 
were  stricken  from  the  systems  and  conventions  of  men,  what 
meaning  then  would  oppression  have  anywhere  in  government 
or  industry'?  tVhat  the  occasion  of  conflict  in  production,  of 


THE  CAUSE. 


19 


con  ^j^tion  in  politics  and  hypocrisy  in  religion,  of  priae  in  so- 
ciety? What  motive  to  the  perversion  of  power,  the  prostitu- 
tion of  intellect  of  the  distortion  of  oxiportunity  ? In  such  a 
state  of  society  what  significance  could  attach  to  such  words 
as  despot,  oppressor,  master,  slave?  What  could  poverty  mean, 
exceiit  of  mind  and  character?  What  could  opulence  signify, 
except  the  accretions  of  industrj^  and  providence? 

Let  there  be  given  jmu  justice  in  your  relations  to  material 
things,  and  all  power  of  opiiression  over  you  is  effectually 
destroj'ed.  Practically,  you  cannot  be  oppressed,  except  you 
be  first  denied  some  material,  industrial  right.  Here  is  the  be- 
ginning of  despotism;  here  the  pregnant  source  of  all  social 
evil;  here  the  ultimate  practical  cause  of  all  the  poverty,  the- 
degradation,  the  corruption  and  oppression  of  the  world.  Let 
there  be  inaugurated  an  industrial  system  that  will  give  each, 
his  rights  in  relation  to  material  things,  and  right  and  justice- 
in  every  other  relation  of  life  will  inevitably  follow. 

Make  safe  the  foundatipn  of  physical  life,  and  the  mental 
and  moral  and  spiritual  will  take  care  of  themselves.  Get 
back  to  the  primal  law — thou  shalt  not  sweat  by  proxy.  Hear 
your  industrial  systems  upon  it,  and  the  despotism  and  op- 
pressions of  kingcraft  and  moneycraft  and  priestcraft  will  dis- 
appear before  its  power  forever.  Upon  its  violation  the  great 
evils  of  the  world  depend.  The  world  is  mad  because  of  this 
one  g-reat  broken  law.  Its  unending  convmlsions  and  conflicts 
are  but  the  ceaseless  paroxysms  of  this  insanity. 

How  has  it  happened  that  this  lunacy  of  man,  the  viola- 
tion of  the  fundamental  principle  of  associated  life,  has  be- 
come incorporated  into  the  very  fabric  of  his  laws  and  customs 
and  systems  of  government  and  industry?  How  has  it  been 
brought  about  that  we  have  a state  of  society  so  based  upon  a 
reversal  of  law,  so  contrary  to  all  principles  of  order  and  or- 
ganization, and  therefore  so  distorted,  diseased  and  unnat- 
ural? 


20 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTEK  V. 


THE  EEIGN  OF  FOECE. 


M 


WAY  back  in  the  beginning  of  time  it  Degan.  'When, 
reason  first  rose  above  instinct  mankind  came  to  the- 
Jj  \\  parting  of  the  way.  There  the  road  forked.  Form- 
^ erly  man  must  needs  conform  to  natural  law,  now 

he  could  veer  from  it,  but  at  his  peril.  He  chose 
to  veer.  Eeason  at  first  was  weak  and  narrowly  sel- 
fish. It  displayed  itself  most  in  selfish  cunning.  Man 
measured  himself  against  man.  The  one  with  the  'fig- 
gest  muscle  noted  the  fact.  Two  large  ideas  kinuied 
in  the  dark  recesses  of  his  brain — power  and  opportunity — and 
a low  mentality  prompted  their  immediate  use  to  selfish  ends. 
His  instinct  was  towards  the  society  of  his  fellows,  but  his 
first  act  was  to  violate  the  foundation  law  of  association.  He 
used  his  power  and  opportunity  to  take  by  force  that  which 
of  right  was  his  weaker  brother’s,  his  place  upon  the  earth  or 
the  products  of  his  labor.  Then  the  strong  went  forth  to  con- 
quer, and  the  age-long  conflict  began.  So  man  in  his  first  at- 
tempt to  improve  upon  nature  took  the  wrong  fork  of  the 
road.  Eight  to  material  things  belonged  to  him  who  had  the 
physical  power  to  seize  and  hold  them.  Force  ruled  the  world. 
Not  right,  but  the  physical  power  of  the  individual  determined 
ownership,  and  ownership  acknowledges  responsibility  to 
naught  but  greater  force.  Custom  now  reared  its  mighty 
form,  and  through  the  force  of  habit  the  habit  of  force  became 
the  custom,  and  thus,  with  the  material  conditions  it  had 
wrought,  was  invested  with  the  semblance  of  right.  Still  bear- 
ing with  it  these  material  conditions  wTought  by  force,  custom 
was  erected  into  government,  and  government  through  its 
statutes  and  decrees  confirmed  the  customs  and  conditions 
brought  about  by  force  with  no  reference  to  their  righteous- 
ness or  natural  justice.  Thus  the  struggle  of  force-wrought 
ownership  w*as  outwardly  transferred  from  the  immediate 
field  of  industry  to  that  of  government,  and  here  for  ages  the 
conflict  has  raged.  YTio  should  control  the  machinery  of  govern- 


THE  EEIGN  OF  FOECE. 


21 


ment  and  througli  it  maintain  for  themselves  the  material 
conditions  inherited  through  custom  from  physical  power? 
The  progress  of  human  development  may  be  easily  traced 
through  the  gradual  extension  of  this  political  or  government- 
al control  to  an  ever  increasing  number  of  individuals. 

From  despot  to  barons;  from  barons  to  a yet  wider  nobil- 
ity; from  them,  in  ever-increasing  circles,  it  has  come  very 
close  to  the  people.  But  always  to  all  the  object  of  getting 
within  the  stronghold  of  power  has  been,  not  to  right  the  first 
great  fundamental  wrong,  but  to  share  in  the  material  benefits 
arising  therefrom,  and  which  the  first  evil  use  of  force  had 
secured  to  itself  and  transmitted  through  government,  custom 
and  law  to  whomsoever  by  these  means  could  gain  possession 
of  them. 

Even  today,  to  “the  people”  themselves  the  great  object 
of  suffrage  and  control  of  government  is  not  to  effect  thereby 
a return  to  first  principles,  but  in  the  main  the  hope  of 
each  is  to  sheer  off  from  himself  the  evil  effects  of  its  viola- 
tion or  mayhap  to  secure  to  himself  a share  in  the  plundered 
rights  of  his  brother. 

From  this  meager  tracing  perhaps  the  reader  may  be  able 
to  see  how  it  has  come  about  that  the  whole  social  structure 
from  industrial  to  political  is  based  upon  a broken  law  of  na- 
ture, upon  the  violation  of  the  essential  principle  of  physical 
well-being,  and  therefore  of  social  order  and  mental  and  eth- 
ical development;  how  the  first  strong  man  by  force  deprived 
his  weaker  fellows  of  their  rights  in  relation  to  materi.nl  tl  ings 
and  appropriated  to  himself  the  products  of  their  labor  by 
means  of  the  “ownership”  thus  acquired;  how  he  sought  to 
strengthen  and  perpetuate  the  condition  thus  brought  ab-nit 
through  the  forms  of  government,  that  is  through  the  con- 
ventions of  himself  and  others  like  him,  erected  in  the  laws  of 
custom  and  the  decrees  of  government;  and  how  thus  ihe  at- 
tention of  men  was  diverted  from  the  real  wrong  and  the. 
struggle  among  them  transferred  from  the  common  field  of 
material  things  to  the  governmental  and  political.  It  may  thus 
be  easily  seen  how  custom  and  law  and  gu\  crnment  have  be- 
come not  the  conservation  of  justice  and  right;,  but  the  crj’s- 
talizations  of  the  wrongs  of  violence  upon  prime  material 
rights,  the  condensations  of  the  injustice  of  force,  verita^'le 
towers  of  physical  power  erected  about  the  field  of  industry 


22 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


for  its  safer  holding  and  control  by  those  who  could  occupy 
them.  And  being  erected  by  force  to  conserve  the  effects  of 
violence,  a real  change  of  occupants  has  never  yet  been  effected 
save  by  the  power  that  created  them — force.  And  though  the 
people  have  been  called  repeatedly  to  oust  one  set  and  to  put 
in  another,  the  result  has  alwaj^s  been  for  them  simplj’'  a 
change  of  masters. 

But  though  violated  industrial  (or  material)  right  had 
government  anid  custom  erected  over  it  to  perpetuate  its  vio- 
lation, and  thus  became  obscured  from  the  common  view  by 
these  superstructures  of  force;  though  for  thousands  of  years 
mankind  has  traveled  the  wrong  fork  of  the  road  through 
blood  and  conflict  and  misery  and  degradation,  apparentlj' 
farther  and  farther  from  tbe  right  objective — true  social  life, 
yet  really  it  has  been  veering  around  to  its  right  destiny,  slow- 
ly, slowly,  like  the  ship  that  rounds  the  earth  to  Its  point  of  de- 
parture, and  whose  voyagers  in  amazement  and  joy  behold  with 
new  eyes  and  a new  understanding  the  land  of  their  nativity. 
Slowly,  slowly  as  the  day  breaketh,  the  vision  of  men  have  pen- 
etrated the  obscurations  of  governments  and  systems  and  cus- 
toms founded  on  force  and  violence,  and  gradually  the  true 
cause  of  evil  among  them  has  been  unfolding  itself  to  their 
view.  Hai^pily  with  the  developing  of  their  vision  and  the 
broadening  of  their  comprehension,  there  has  been  impressed 
upon  their  understanding  tw'o  lessons,  learned  at  last  through 
the  ages  of  conflict  and  oppression,  and  now'  in  these  modern 
times  vitally  necessary  to  that  readjustment  of  society  to  its 
natural  law  wdiieh  must  take  place — the  lessons  of  Organiza- 
tion and  Eesponsibility  of  Power,  both  learned  in  the  strife 
over  government. 

When  the  first  strong  men  in  the  beginning  by  violence 
achieved  owmership  over  the  rights  of  others  in  their  relation 
to  material  things,  and  sought  to  crystallize  the  wrong  into 
the  form  of  government,  each  found  it  necessary  to  gather 
immediately  about  him  other  men  only  less  strong  than  him- 
self. These  in  the  course  of  time  saw  that  their  combined 
strength  was  greater  than  that  of  their  chief,  and  coveting 
the  benefits  and  privileges  his  “ownership”  conferred,  they  or- 
ganized to  depose  him  and  parcel  out  among  themselves  his 
“possessions.” 

About  these  others  gathered,  sa\v  their  opportunity  and 


THE  EEIGN  OF  FORCE. 


23 


combined;  and  the  circle  of  dominant  “ownership”  gradually 
widening  with  the  process,  finally  reached  a number  too  great 
to  give  each  a place  in  the  governing  body,  and  the  idea  was 
born  of  making  the  exercise  of  power  responsible.  Thus  as 
the  lesson  of  organization  was  extended  to  greater  numbers 
of  men,  the  idea  of  Responsibility  of  Power  extended  with  it. 
And  for  the  last  few  hundred  years  the  conflicts  of  men  have 
been  evolved  from  these  two  ideas.  Wars  and  revolutions 
have  revolved  about  them.  Before  them  thrones  trembled  and 
crumbled  and  from  them  republics  were  born.  These  ideas  are 
founded  upon  the  two  great  social  principles  that  human  na- 
ture cannot  be  trusted  with  irresponsible  power,  and  that 
power  cannot  be  made  responsible  except  through  organiza- 
tion. But  for  ages  these  costly  truths  learned  in  the  dire 
school  of  experience,  were  confined  in  their  application  to  the 
political  world.  Today,  civilized  men  will  not  trust  men  to  rule 
over  them  politically  wdth  irresponsible  i^ower.  Offices  are  made 
elective.  An  intricate  system  of  checks  are  idaced  upon  those 
in  authority.  In  theory  nothing  is  left  to  indi\idual  caprice  and 
but  little  to  individual  discretion.  Man  cannot  be  trusted  with 
irresponsible  power;  and  only  through  organization  can  re- 
sponsibility be  fixed  and  power  rightly  applied.  These  great 
ideas  and  principles  have  been  clearly  evolved  from  the  age- 
long political  struggles  of  the  past.  Graduatly  as  the  genius 
of  organization  has  crept  over  into  the  industrial  world,  the 
idea  of  responsible  power  has  crept  after  it  like  a shadow;  and 
lolwith  them  both  has  come  the  wonderful  revelation  that  upon 
the  industrial  depends  the  political,  and  that  government  has 
no  meaning  except  as  it  affects  the  rights  of  men  in  their  rela- 
tion to  material  things,  and  that  upon  justice  in  material 
things  must  justice  in  all  things  else  at  last  depend. 


24 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  OWNERSHIP. 

HE  condition  of  society  today  throug-hout  the  civil- 
I ized  world  is  one  of  universal  conflict,  constantly 
j and  necessarily  tending  to  complete  anarchy  on  the 
one  hand,  or  to  despotism  on  the  other,  and  in  either 
case  to  disintegration,  degeneration  and  destruction  of  the 
social  organism  in  question.  In  the  political  world,  among  na- 
tions, this  condition  of  perpetual  social  conflict  flnds  its 
expressions  in  actual  warfare,  or  in  mighty  preparations  for 
war,  or  in  hostile  legislation,  nation  against  nation,  people 
against  people,  race  against  race.  Christendom  is  an  armed 
camp.  The  earth  bristles  with  bayonets;  the  sea  with  the 
mightiest  engines  of  war. 

In  the  industrial  world,  this  universal  condition  finds  its 
expression  in  a system  denominated  competitive,  whose  chief 
characteristic  is  a hostility  of  individual  interests  in  both 
production  and  distribution  that  contravenes  all  social  law, 
and  rims  counter  to  the  very  end  and  aim  of  social  organiza- 
tion. 

This  condition  was  brought  about  in  the  first  instance  by 
brute  physical  force,  brought  to  bear  upon  the  rights  of  weaker 
men  in  their  relations  to  material  things,  whereby  force  as- 
serted ownership  over  labor  itself,  or  over  access  to  the  means 
of  production  (whether  natural  or  soeial)  through  which  alone 
labor  could  be  utilized. 

To  render  this  forceful  “ownership”  more  safely  perma- 
nent, custom  and  law  and  government  were  finally  builded 
upon  it  and  about  it,  and  thus  these  mighty  conserving  influ- 
ences and  moulding  agencies  which  naturally  would  have  con- 
tributed to  justice  and  the  progress  and  well-being  of  society, 
have  been  largely  but  the  ministers  of  injustice  and  the  per- 
petuators  of  conflict. 

Stricken  thus  at  its  very  foundation,  the  whole  super- 
structure of  society  has  been  throughout  all  time  the  weak 
and  tottering  and  disintegrating  thing  that  it  is  today.  And 


THE  GOVEENMENT  OF  OWNEESHIP. 


25 


the  people,  deprived  o±  their  fundamental,  material  rights, 
rights  upon  which  their  very  physical  life  and  well-being  de- 
pend, struggle  in  vain  for  any  other  rights,  social,  political, 
intellectual,  or  moral,  until  these  foundation  rights  are  first 
regained. 

This  it  is  that  causes  Pror.  Huxley  to  say,  “Even  the  best 
of  modern  civilization  appears  to  me  to  exhibit  a condition  of 
mankind  which  neither  embodies  any  worthy  ideal  nor  even 
possesses  the  merit  of  stability.”  This  it  is  that  causes  one  of 
the  most  profound  economic  philosophers  to  say,  “Every  im- 
provement of  civilization  but  cherishes  the  want  of  today,  and 
prepares  the  re%'olution  for  tomorrow.”  Or,  as  a famous  poet 
has  paraphrased  it,  “ The  car  of  human  improvement,  rushing 
through  civilization,  crushes  beneath  its  wheels  all  who  do  not 
grapple  to  it,  and  in  the  awful  struggle,  only  the  few  may 
grasp  it.” 

To  understand  fully  the  significance  of  the  remedy  herein 
to  be  set  forth,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  well  in  mind  the  suc- 
cession of  cause  and  effect  that  has  led  up  to  the  present  “sys- 
tem.” It  is  necessary  to  remember  that  the  whole  of  our  so- 
cial system  is  grounded  upon  a continuous  violation  of  the  pri- 
mal law  of  social  order,  material  (industrial)  justice;  that  this 
violation  was  first  affected  by  superior  physical  force  assert- 
ing an  unjust  ownership  over  men  in  their  relation  to  material 
things,  and  that  this  assertion  of  force  precipitated  a conflict 
that  has  never  ceased,  because  upon  and  about  the  ownership 
thus  affected,  all  social,  governmental  and  industrial  systems 
have  been  built.  Or  to  state  it  more  succinetly,  the  present 
system  of  conflict  and  despotism  prevails  because  in  ancient 
times  force  determined  ownership,  and  this  violent  and  un- 
just ownership,  to  perpetuate  itself,  created,  molded  and  con- 
trolled government,  and  that  through  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment, law  and  custom  so  created  and  controlled,  peaceful 
succession  to  this  “ownership”  has  ever  since  alone  been 
possible. 

It  is,  therefore,  evident  that  “ownership”  even  thus  peace- 
fully acquired  is  but  a perpetuation  of  the  original  injustice 
upon  which  it  was  founded,  and  which  can  never  be  righted  ex- 
cept by  the  voluntary  surrender  of  such  ownership,  however  ac- 
quired, and  the  return  of  his  ancient  and  primal  birthright  to 
each  individual,  however  “weak”  or  “incompetent”  he  may  be. 


26 


THE  COHSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


Prom  the  foregoing'  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  as  ■svell  a^ 
from  the  very  reason  and  nature  of  things  this  conclusion  may 
be  deduced  and  received  as  an  axiom,  that  ownership  necessa- 
rily creates  government  and  controls  it.  If  justice  determines 
that  “ownership,”  then  justice  will  create  and  control  the  gov- 
ernment; if  force  and  violence  is  at  the  foundation  of  owner- 
ship, then  must  force  and  violence  create,  characterize  and  con- 
trol the  forms  of  law  and  government.  Ownership  determines 
control.  From  this  inexorable  law  there  can  be  no  departure. 
Ownership  is  diverted  from  individual  to  individual,  from  class 
to  class;  but  control  is  never  diverted  from  ownership.  It 
always  follows  it  as  the  needle  follows  the  pole. 

From  this  unchanging  law  may  be  deduced  another,  equal- 
ly a social  axiom — that  the  g'rasp  of  ownership  upon  control 
(government)  can  never  be  broken  except  by  force,  and  never 
permanently  even  by  force,  except  ownership  is  itself  trans- 
ferred. The  truth  of  this  has  been  absolutely  and  literally 
demonstrated  in  modern  times,  where  whenever  force  has  been 
removed,  we  have  seen  ownership  openly  spring  to  its  rightful 
and  inevitable  place  as  the  true  governing  power.  This  ac- 
counts for  the  fruitless  revolutions  of  the  past,  the  disap- 
pointments of  popular  uprisings  in  all  the  ages  of  the  world, 
and  the  emptiness  of  all  efforts  at  peaceful  reform  today  that 
aim  only  at  control,  and  not  likewise  at  ownership.  Xay,  if 
the  peaceful  effort  aims  at  o\vnership  through  control,  and  not 
at  control  through  ownership,  it  will  also  fail.  It  necessarily 
must  fail;  for  ownership  has  never  yet,  and  it  never  will, 
peacefully  let  go  its  grasp  upon  control.  Practically  it  never 
can,  for  to  do  so  is  virtually  to  destroy  itself.  The  attention  of 
the  reader  is,  therefore,  dra’s^n  again  to  this  truth,  for  it  has  a 
mighty  bearing  upon  the  problem  before  us — that  the  grasp 
of  ownership  upon  control  (government)  can  never  be  jjrokcn 
except  bj^  force.  The  grasp  of  individuals  upon  ownership 
may  be  broken  by  peaceful  means,  changed  from  individual 
to  individual,  from  class  to  class,  through  the  forms  of  custom 
and  the  law,  i.  e.,  government;  but  the  grasp  of  ownership  upon 
these  forms  (government)  can  not  be  broken  except  by  revo- 
lution. There  is  a distinction  here  v^-ith  a difference,  most  po- 
tential in  its  possible  effects  upon  the  history  of  the  future, 
and  students  of  economics  and  politics  should  ponder  it  well. 

It  means  that  all  peaceful  attacks  on  ownership  through 


L’HE  GOVERNMENT  OF  O^YNEESHIP. 


27 


government  are  futile.  It  means  that  “government  ownership” 
can  only  be  effected  by  revolution,  by  the  physical  force  of 
arms.  It  means  that  as  against  the  government  of  ownership, 
all  other  government  is  meaningless;  that  as  against  it,  all 
degrees  and  kinds  of  “poj)ular”  ownership  of  government 
through  “suffrage,”  ' representation,”  “initiative  and  referen- 
dum,” constitutions,  statutes,  and  decrees  of  courts  are  abso- 
lutely valueless  and  imxiotent  to  all  practical  intents  and  pur- 
poses. It  means  that  the  government  of  ownership  must  ne- 
cessarily prevail  against  everything  but  superior  force,  and 
bows  to  it  only  when  and  so  long  as  it  is  actively  exerted 
against  it.  It  means  that  the  industrial  condition  is  the  deter- 
mining factor  throughout  the  whole  social  organism,  molding, 
informing,  and  characterizing  its  every  function  and  organ. 

In  more  ancient  times,  government  and  ownership  were 
united  in  the  same  person.  The  desj)otic,  political  chief  was 
the  actual  owner  of  the  land  and  the  labor  of  his  corner  of  the 
earth.  Therefore,  when  ownership  changed  hands,  as  it  fre- 
quently did,  and  always  by  force  (I  speak  not  of  descent,)  gov- 
ernment necessarily  went  with  it.  In  less  ancient  times,  the 
tw'o  were  always  so  intimately  blended  with  the  personnel  of 
government,  that  the  popular  mind  did  not  and  could  not  dis- 
tinguish between  them;  and  still  when  ownership  “changed 
hands,”  as  it  still  frequently  did,  always  still  by  the  power  of 
physical  force,  government  still  likewise  went  with  it.  In  those 
times,  attacks  on  ownership  were  always  made  through  at- 
tacks on  the  “government”  (official  power),  because  they  were 
actually  or  virtually  united  in  the  same  person;  but  because  of 
the  “pomp  and  circumstance”  of  government,  it  was  al- 
ways identified  in  the  popular  mind  as  the  source  of  power, 
and  to  the  people,  ownership  appeared  to  depend  upon  and 
follow  it.  Hence  it  was  as  we  have  already  noted,  that  the 
“conflict”  among  men  waged  fiercest  ostensibly  about  govern- 
ment, and  that  the  pivotal  ownership  underneath  has  been  lost 
to  popular  view.  Hence  it  is  also,  that  in  modern  times,  the 
efforts  of  the  “people”  have  been  mainly  directed  to  political 
relief,  to  governmental  “changes,”  not  with  intent  to  reorganize 
ownership  on  the  new  basis  of  industrial  justice,  but  simply 
to  readjust  government  to  a slightly  different  position  on  the 
old  basis  of  material  injustice,  thinking  thereby  to  shift  op- 


28 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


pression  to  other  shoulders,  or  to  gain  some  of  its  “benefits” 
to  themselves. 

It  is  only  in  these  iast  days  of  the  closing  century  that  the 
people  have  begun  to  awake  to  the  stern  fact  that  oppression 
may  not  be  so  shifted,  nor  benefits  to  them  be  so  gained.  As  in 
the  past,  the  people  have  found  that  a change  in  the  personnel 
of  “government”  v/as  at  most  but  a change  of  masters;  so 
in  these  later  times,  we  are  beginning  to  discover  that  a 
change  of  administration,  the  triumph  or  defeat  of  a party, 
the  enactment  or  repeal  of  a law,  nay,  the  possession  of  all 
political  rights,  and  the  establishment  of  constitutional  and 
representative  political  government  with  the  unjust  basis  of 
ownership  left  undisturbed,  have  absolutely  no  beneficial  ef- 
fect upon  the  condition  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  who  if  not 
in  a worse  state,  are  exactly  as  they  were  before.  In  short, 
we  are  just  beginning  to  discover  that  there  is  no  escape  from 
the  government  of  ownership,  except  in  wresting  ownership 
itself  from  the  possession  of  the  usurping  and  irresponsible 
individual,  and  consigning  it  to  its  rightful  heritor,  labor,  and 
by  mutual  consent  making  the  administration  of  its  power 
responsible  to  the  general  societj'. 

In  such  action  alone  lies  the  remedy. 

How  may  this  be  done?  In  the  right  answer  lies  the  true 
solution  of  the  industrial  and  governmental  problem. 


THE  EEMEDY. 


29 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  EEMEDY 

kO  staxv.  a condition  and  define  the  cause  is  to  i^aicate 
the  nature  of  the  remedy.  To  those  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  reasoning  herein  pursued,  and 
who  accept  it  as  true,  it  will  already  have  appeared 
that  the  remedy  must  be  essentially  industrial  and  not  politi- 
caE  The  political  will  have  its  place  in  the  process;  but  it  will 
be  auxiliary  and  ancilliary,  sujtplementary  and  completing  to 
the  industrial,  following,  and  not  preceding  it. 

Whether  there  was  ever  a time  in  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try when  the  readjustment  of  ownership  to  a basis  of  material 
justice  through  social  responsibility  might  have  been  effected 
wholly  by  political  means,  it  is  perhaps  not  now  profitable  to 
discuss.  That  it  was  not  so  done,  is  perhaps  conclusive  that 
practically  speaking  it  could  not  have  been.  Whether  it  can  yet 
be  so  effected,  is  another  question  to  which  attention  will  for 
a moment  be  directed;  peacefullj'^  effected,  of  course,  I mean, 
for  with  war  and  revolution  this  scribe  in  this  work  has  noth- 
ing to  do.  That  it  cannot  be  so  done  would  seem  to  follow 
from  those  axioms  of  social  law  that  ownership  creates  and 
controls  government,  and  that  the  grasp  of  ownership  upon 
government  can  never  be  broken  except  by  force. 

That  the  non-owners  can  never  peacefully  effect  it  by  po- 
litical means  would  to  an  ordinary  observer  appear  a foregone 
conclusion,  for  to  such  it  is  a very  evident  fact  that  practically 
the  “right”  of  suffrage  is  to  this  class  but  permissive  and  de- 
pendent for  its  free  exercise  upon  the  power  of  their  “owners,” 
virtually,  and  as  much  so  for  all  vital,  practical  purposes  as 
such  a “right”  would  have  been  to  the  chattel  slaves  with  ref- 
erence to  their  master’s  ownership. 

Whether  or  not  the  large  constituency  of  small  “owners” 
may  be  able  to  combine  against  the  large  owners  and  their 
vast  army  of  servants  and  retainers,  and  one  by  one  reduce 
their  industrial  holdings  to  “public”  ownership,  is  the  only 
question.  That  this  has  been  their  policy  and  method  in  the 


30 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


past  must  be  admitted,  but  force  was  always  then  the  suc- 
cessful weapon. 

May  the  ballot  now  effect  in  their  hands  what  formerly  re- 
quired the  sword. 

Prom  the  indications  of  the  times,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
such  an  attempt  will  soon  be  put  to  an  issue.  That  it  will  fail, 
there  are  many  reasons  for  confident  belief.  First,  because 
the  grasi)  of  ownership  on  government  that  is  vital  and  master- 
ful today  is  the  grasp  of  the  large  owners.  Control  is  in  tbeir 
hands;  control  not  only  of  the  machinery  of  politics  and  gov- 
ernment, but  of  agitation  and  education  so  necessary  to  a 
revolutionary  exercise  of  the  ballot,  and  the  indications  are  that 
in  accordance  wdth  our  axiom,  they  have  already  detcrminiri 
never  to  release  this  grasp  peacefully;  second,  the  small  cwn- 
ership,  though  large  in  numbers,  is  not  so  reall3',  for  their  own- 
ership is  virtually  only  apparent,  as  may  be  seen  bj'  the  power 
of  political  coercion,  w^hich,  through  trade,  commerce  and 
finance,  the  large  owmership  is  enabled  to  exercise  over  so  large 
a part  of  them;  third,  and  last  but  not  least,  there  has  alreac'\' 
been  developed  an  ownership  class-consciousness  so  to  speak, 
which  must  necessarily  still  further  divide  the  partj' 
of  small  owmers  and  tend  to  prevent  united,  consistent 
and  harmonious  action.  There  are  other  reasons;  but 
perhaps  these  are  enough  to  give  serious  pause  to  the 
hope  of  peaceful,  political  relief  alone.  For  he  who 
can  believe  that  an3r  class  or  part3'  loaded  with  these 
impedimentia  can  break  through  the  obstacles  of  part3'  politics, 
bossism,  corruption,  indirection  and  betra3'al.  thence  thronuh 
the  difficulties  of  the  divided  i^owers  of  government — legA’a- 
tive,  executive  and  judicial — all  of  which  for  effective  action 
must  be  concurrently  possessed,  and  finalh’  through  consti- 
tutions, amendments  and  interpretations,  and  by  these  means 
at  last  successfully  reorganize  industries  to  a basis  of  jiublic 
commonw'ealth — ^he,  I say,  wffio  can  believe  all  this,  must  in- 
deed be  a hopeful  creature. 

There  may  be  those  who  will  take  issue  with  the  statement 
of  fact  that  large  ownership  has  alread3'  determined  never  to 
release  its  grasp  of  control  (government)  peacefulhg  but  in 
the  presidential  campaign  of  ’96,  where  for  the  first  time  in 
anj^  open  and  extended  way,  the  lines  of  hostile  conflict  were 
drawm  betw'een  the  small  owners  and  the  large,  those  who 


THE  REMEDY. 


31 


were  in  touch  with  plutocracy  know  that  such  a determination, 
implacable,  imjuelding,  and  with  the  power  to  enforce  its  will, 
rode  impudent  and  ill-disguised  through  all  that  masque  of 
party  contest.  Its  threat  was  all  but  publicly  and  officially 
made,  and  its  purt)ose  shown  but  with  small  pretense  of  con- 
cealment. That  it  still  exists,  always  necessarily  has  and  will, 
the  economically  well-informed  have  never  attempted  to  deny. 
The  fact  is,  that  in  piopular  government,  politics  and  party 
strife  are  but  the  veiled  contests  among-  the  brotherhood  of 
ownership.  As  long  as  those  contests  are  only  for  special  priv- 
ilege and  passing  advantage,  with  always  a chance  of  reversal, 
all  is  well.  But  let  the  contest  involve  the  issue  of  ownership 
itself,  by  the  one  party  or  the  other,  and  at  once  the  good  hu- 
mor of  the  gamblers  disappears.  It  at  once  means  rebellion, 
revolution,  internecine  war,  bloody  and  to  the  hilt  of  the  knife. 
That  was  tried  once  in  this  country  on  slave-owmership, 
and  the  mightiest  civil  war  of  history  was  f>recipitated. 
Try  it  on  capital-ownership,  and  the  “rebellion”  of  ’61  will  go 
down  to  second  place  in  the  history  of  wars.  The  cold  truth  is, 
that  under  present  industrial  conditions,  suffrage  is  but  a bau- 
ble to  keep  the  “people”  quiet,  and  which  they  are  “free”  to 
use  so  long  only  as  they  threaten  no  vital  danger  to  the  govern- 
ment of  ownership;  and  the  sooner  the  small  owner  and  non- 
owner  come  to  understand  that,  the  better  for  them  and  their 
children  and  all  mankind. 

Xo,  the  peaceful  application  of  the  remedy  will  not  be 
effected  wholly,  nor  even  mainly,  by  political  effort. 

The  storm  of  conflict  that  for  ages  rag'ed  about  “govern- 
ment” ostensibly  per  se  has  long  since  passed  to  another,  and 
the  only  real  j)oint  of  interest  to  mankind,  MTien  the  people 
secured  the  right  of  ballot,  then  to  all  practical  intents  and 
purposes  the  j)olitical  conflict  ceased.  Political  government 
has  never  meant  anything-  to  the  people  except  a means  of  mak- 
ing- individual  plwsical  power  responsible  to  society.  This 
flower  being  the  one  which  first  violated  the  primal  social  law, 
it  was  natural  and  right  that  it  should  be  the  first  to  be  re- 
strained. But  when  the  ballot  was  gained,  and  public  posi- 
tions, originally  gained  and  held  by  physical  force,  were  made 
resfjonsible  to  the  people,  the  political  battle  was  virtually 
ended;  methods  of  elpcoion,  legislation  and  execution  are  but 
matters  of  detail.  The  principle  has  been  won;  for  it  is  now 


32 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


universally  conceded  that  physical  force  and  all  that  naturally 
and  obviously  represents  it  in  society,  must  be  made  responsi- 
ble to  society. 

To  attempt  to  use  the  ballot  to  readjust  the  basis  of  own- 
ership is  very  natural  but  a very  serious  error.  The  ballot  is 
only  an  agreed-upon  method  of  making  force  responsible.  So- 
ciety has  never  so  agreed  in  reference  to  ownership.  It  never 
will,  for  irresponsible  ownership  will  never  peaceably  so  con- 
sent. But  you  will  remind  me  that  I have  said  that  owner- 
ship controls  government,  and  therefore  you  will  say  that  the 
people’s  victory  over  government  was  also  a victory  over  owner- 
ship. Not  so,  for  at  the  time  that  victory  was  won,  the  person- 
nel of  ownership  was  wholly  (bj^  convention)  and  largelj'  in 
fact  dis-united  from  the  personnel  of  government.  That 
is  to  say,  ownership  had  then  already  come  to  rule,  as  it  does 
now,  by  indirection  and  not  direction,  and  the  only  thing  .-,et- 
tled  by  the  winning  of  the  ballot  was  the  responsible  exercise 
of  force. 

I must  remind  you,  too,  that  the  ballot  was  not  won  by 
the  ballot,  it  was  not  won  by  peaceful  means,  but  bj'  force 
battling  against  force;  the  organized  force  of  the  many  weak 
against  the  organized  force  of  the  few  strong,  or  the  few  that 
originally  represented  superior  strength;  the  force  of  the  peo- 
ple organized  with  a view  of  contesting  irresponsible  force, 
organized  with  a view  of  perpetuating  itself  in  official  power, 
and  after  victory  won  making  the  whole  responsible. 

Political  government,  therefore,  represents  only  the  con- 
trol of  irresponsible  force;  and  modern  ownership,  the  off- 
spring of  the  latter,  having  repudiated  its  father  now  that  suc- 
cession could  be  effected  by  peaceful  means,  was  the  principal 
factor  in  his  overthrow,  and  now  keeps  his  cunning  grasp  upon 
the  new  associate  ■Ruth  the  double  purpose  of  seeing  to  it  that 
the  control  of  his  deposed  father  is  etfectual,  and  that  the  neo- 
phyte does  not  disturb  his  possessions.  Or  rather,  perhaps,  it 
were  more  nearly  the  truth  to  say  that  in  its  latest  analysis 
and  in  fact  the  victory  of  suffrage  was  not  exactly  a victory 
of  the  “people”  after  all.  It  was  but  the  culmination  of 
the  title  of  ownership  that,  from  the  beginning  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  government  and  its  forms  of  succession,  had  been 
spreading  in  larger  and  larger  circles  from  the  despot  to- 
wards the  people.  As  ownership  spread  to  these  larger  circles 


THE  EEMEDY. 


33 


the  potentialities  of  government  moved  ndth  it,  and  each 
promptly  organized  to  depose  the  force  still  officially  repre- 
sented by  the  old  circle  and  enthroned  its  own,  making  it  re- 
sponsible to  its  circle  alone;  and  when  popular  suffrage  was 
obtained,  it  was  but  a method  of  announcing  to  the  world 
that  ownership  had  reached  a circle  of  holders  so  large  as  to 
embrace  a large  majority  of  the  people,  and  it  was  then  nat- 
urally thought  because  the  force  then  enthroned  and  made 
responsible,  represented  so  numerous  a constituency  that  the 
question  of  the  responsibility  of  power  was  forever  settled. 

Under  ancient  conditions  such  would  probably  have  been 
the  case;  but  unfortunately  for  such  a result,  just  at  the 
time  that  ownership  had  reached  its  last  and  widest  circle  of 
constituent  holders,  the  modern  facilities  and  opportunities 
of  industrial  organization  sprang  into  being  and  the  tide  of 
ownership  was  turned.  Faster  and  faster  its  circle  again  con- 
tracts; faster  and  faster  it  flows  from  the  people  and  faster 
and  faster  it  ebbs  away  toward  the  despot,  and  the  people  are 
realizing  that  political  privilege  without  ownership  means 
nothing.  That  without  it,  suffrage  is  but  the  form  of  freedom 
without  its  substance,  and  the  ballot  but  a bauble  with  the 
power  to  effect  nothing. 

But  though  it  is  not  through  the  exercise  of  political  pow- 
ers that  relief  must  come,  yet  it  is  to  the  lesson  learned  in 
the  political  struggle  and  to  faculties  and  powers  therein  first 
developed  and  nourished,  that  we  must  look  for  the  methods 
by  w'hich  relief  must  be  effected. 

We  have  already  seen  how'  in  the  struggle  for  the  owner- 
ship of  government,  as  the  circle  of  aspirants  widened  from 
about  the  single  despot  to  larger  and  larger  bodies  of  men,  the 
faculty  of  organization  was  developed  and  its  power  more 
clearly  apprehended.  Also  how,  as  the  number  of  sharers  in 
control  grew  and  the  impossibility  of  the  personal  participa- 
tion of  all  was  finally  made  manifest,  the  idea  of  responsible 
administration  of  power  was  born  and  made  a determining  fac- 
tor in  the  final  solution  of  the  political  problem. 

It  is  these  lessons  that  must  be  learned  anew  by  the  peo- 
ple in  their  application  to  industrial  ownership. 

The  responsible  administration  of  industrial  power  must 
be  the  slogan  of  the  new  crusade  for  the  people’s  rights,  and 
it  can  only  be  realized  through  industrial  organization. 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 


SOME  PEINCIPLES  OF  IXDUSTEIAL  EVOLUTION. 

KGANIZATION  for  ownership,  collective  and  respon- 


little  more  tolerable  servitude. 

Organization  for  labor  ownership  in  the  various  trades 
and  industries,  mutuallj'  resj)onsible  to  each  other  and  the  pub- 
lic for  uniform  oj)eration  according  to  agreed  upon  principles — 
this  will  be  the  objective  of  the  new  order.  Nothing  less  will 
be  accepted  by  it  excei>t  as  means 'to  this  one  great  aim. 

We  have  seen  that  organized  ownership  is  the  i^ower  that 
dominates  societj%  and,  excepting  force,  it  is  the  power  that 
always  has  and  alwaj^s  will  dominate.  Its  materialistic  hand 
controls,  not  only  government  and  industry,  but,  whenever  the 
status  quo  upon  which  it  is  based  is  threatened  bj'  either  in- 
tellect or  morals,  these,  too,  feel  the  power  of  its  omnipres- 
ent and  omnipotent  grasp. 

Vi'e  have  seen  that,  necessarily  and  ine\-itably,  this  is  sor 
for  the  ownership  of  that  uiJon  which  physical  life  depends 
means  the  control  of  everything  and  all  that  depends  on  phy- 
sical life. 

Effective  power,  then,  today  practicallj'  depends  on  the 
ownership  of  the  j)roducing  means — land  and  machinery  of 
industi’3^  In  the  beginning  this  ownership  depended  on  i^ower, 
i.  e.,  phj'sical  force,  and  we  have  alreadj'  related  how  force,  in 
order  to  make  firmer  the  “ownership”  of  the  “rights”  ravished 
from  others  in  violation  of  the  primal  law  of  social  life,  estab- 
lished government,  and  through  it,  such  forms  of  possession  and 
succession  as  were  best  designed  to  'perpetuate  the  results  of 
the  original  violation.  How  the  reign  of  conflict  thence  arose, 
and  wage  and  chattel  slaverj^  and  competition  and  the  despot- 
ism of  capital  became  engrafted  into  the  customs  and  systems 
of  society  we  know.  And  we  know  how  in  the  course  of  time 
through  the  forms  of  succession  referred  to,  principally  those 


sible,  will  be  the  slogan  of  the  New  Order  of  Labor 
that  is  to  succeed  the  many  la.bor  orders  of  today,  or- 
ganized only  for  a little  less  unstable  tenantry  and  a 


SOME  PRINCIPLES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION. 


35 


•of  trade  and  commerce,  ownership  was  gradually  extended  to 
others  than  those  for  whom  authority  designed  it,  and  these 
possessing  the  substance  of  x^ower  without  its  form,  organized 
from  time  to  time  to  secure  it,  and,  having  done  so,  x^roceeded 
to  share  with  the  ‘"recognized”  classes  the  “honors,  immunities 
and  privileges”  belonging  thereto,  but  with  never  any  thought 
of  readjusting  ownership  to  a basis  of  fundamental  justice. 

Even  in  the  domain  of  force,  since  government  has  become 
an  established  institution  among  men,  there  has  never  been  a 
successful  revolution  not  based  on  some  claim'  of  ownership, 
and  no  successful  “popular”  revolutions  excex^t  those  of  “un- 
recognized” ownershix>  organized  for  “recognition.”  Without 
fear  of  any  successful  challenge,  I make  this  uncompromising 
statement — there  has  never  been  a poxJular  ux^rlsing,  perma- 
nently successful,  effected  by  the  non-owning  classes. 

These  facts  are  reviewed  here  again  for  the  purpose  of 
emphasizing  this  truth — that  ownership  is  today  the  only  real 
power,  and  that  organization  excex^t  for  ownershixJ,  is  futile 
and  meaningless  in  so  far  as  a,ny  x^ermanent  beneficial  results 
are  concerned.  The  conflict  among  men  has  ahvays  raged 
about  the  stronghold  of  ownership.  There  it  always  will  be 
fought,  and  there  it  centers  today.  And  no  permanent  civiliz- 
ation nor  true  and  satisfactory  social  life  can  ever  be  attained 
except  the  conflict  cease,  and  it  will  never  cease  until  owner- 
ship is  adjusted  to  a basis  of  exact  justice  to  all. 

Hitherto  the  struggle  has  been  for  ownership  on  the  basis 
established  by  force  through  the  violation  of  natural  social  law. 
And  it  has  been,  in  effect,  an  individual  struggle  for  individual 
ownership  without  regard  to  the  just  rights  of  others. 

As  long  as  the  tendency  of  the  tide  was  steadily  from  the 
few  to  the  many,  there  was  some  ground  for  hope  that  the  evil 
essentially  involved  in  the  violated  law  would  at  last  bec-mm 
in  effect  so  “highly  attenuated”  as  to  be  at  least  bearable;  but 
since  the  tide  of  ownership  has  to  ebb  away  from  the  manj 
and  flow  strongly  to  the  few,  it  is  plain  that  the  theory  of  at 
tenuation  can  not  prevail. 

In  a vague  and  somewhat  instinctive  way,  the  people 
seem  to  understand  this,  and  to  realize  that  the  only  hope 
of  the  future  lies  in  a radical  reorganization  of  industry  on 
principles  of  ownership  just  to  all.  The  efforts  of  the  people 
to  control  monopolies  and  corporations,  the  tendency  «f  po- 


3C 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


litical  agitation  towards  industrial  undertakings  by  tbe  gov- 
ernment, and  the  spread  of  the  co-operative  sentiment  in  pri- 
vate enterprise,  are  all  evidences  of  this  feeling  and  understand- 
ing. 

Hitherto  the  wider  attention  has  been  given  to  the  first 
two  manifestations  mentioned,  namely,  governmental  inter- 
ference. We  have  already  given  our  reasons  for  believing  that 
such  methods  must  necessarily  fail.  Government  is  organized 
ownership,  and  to  attempt  to  capture  ownership  through  its 
own  organ  is  iike  weaponless  men  attempting  to  capture  an 
army  by  first  capturing  its  arms.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
one  can  imagine  circumstances  under  which  such  a result 
could  be  effected,  but  certainly  none  that  may  be  reasonably 
hoped  for  with  reference  to  the  fight  for  ownership. 

The  development  of  the  co-operative  sentiment  is  more  to 
the  purpose.  In  it  is  indicated  the  only  method  by  which  the 
tide  of  ownership  may  be  turned  towards  the  people,  and  the 
only  method  by  which  the  masses  of  men  may  right  the  ancient 
wrong  of  force,  and  the  suicidal  confiict  of  competition  and 
place  themselves  in  harmonj’’  with  the  fundamental  social  law 
of  material  justice. 

It  is  true  that  the  small  ownership  of  the  country  is  still 
numerically  strong  enough  to  unite,  and  by  force  wrest  own- 
ership and  with  it  government  from  the  usurping  few,  if  too 
many  of  the  non-owners  did  not  side  with  the  latter.  But  even 
then,  the  victory  would  be  fruitless  of  any  permanent  good 
to  the  race,  if  the  object  should  be  as  in  the  past,  simply  a 
change  in  the  personnel  of  masterhood,  a raising  of  the  more 
numerous  smaller  ownership  to  a level  of  power  with  the 
larger,  and  leaving  the  whole  still  on  the  same  unjust  basis 
established  of  old  by  force.  The  result  would  be  simply  as  the 
thrashing  of  old  straw,  Sysiphus  would  again  have  to  bend  to 
his  never-ending  task,  and  the  real  conflict  would  but  begpn 
anew. 

And  if  the  object  of  such  an  uprising  of  force,  could,  by 
any  stretch  of  the  imagination  be  supposed  to  be  to  reorganize 
ownership  itself  on  a basis  of  social  justice,  there  would  nec- 
essarily have  to  be  presupposed  as  a condition  precedent  to  the 
entertainment  of  such  an  object  by  small  ownership,  an  ex- 
tensive and  personal  experience  in  the  successful  organization 
and  operation  of  industries  on  such  a basis.  In  other  words, 


SOME  PEINCIPLES  OF  INDUSTEIAL  EVOLUTION.  37 


there  would  have  to  have  been  already  attained  by  the  people 
themselves  in  their  private  capacity,  a very  large  degree  of  suc- 
cess in  co-operative  enterprises  before  the  conserving  and  in- 
tensifying power  of  government  could  be  effectually  brought 
to  bear  upon  them.  The  inexorable  laws  of  evolution  require 
this.  Government  is  the  conservation,  the  crystallization  of 
the  results  of  human  progress.  It  follows,  not  precedes.  Its 
functions  are  to  conserve,  to  intensify,  to  generalize,  not  to 
lead. 

Industries  may  be  so  perfectly  organized  as  to  be  finally 
brought  one  by  one  within  the  operation  of  this  mighty  organ 
of  society;  but  this  organization  of  industries  must  be  done 
by  their  owners  assentingly  with  that  final  consummation  in 
view. 

So  again  and  again  we  are  brought  up  against  this  inevita- 
ble conclusion  that  the  battle  before  “the  people”  is  for  indus- 
trial ownership,  and  that  it  must  be  an  industrial  battle,  fought 
out  to  a finish  strictly  along  industrial  lines.  As  has  been 
said,  the  methods  to  be  used  by  both  sides  in  this 
struggle  will,  in  the  main,  be  business  methods,  and  the  imme- 
diate and  present  object  practical  business  results. 

Organization  will  be  the  watch-word  by  both  the  people 
•and  the  plutocrats.  But  the  organization  undertaken  will  be 
on  a scale  hitherto  unattempted  by  even  the  latter.  On  the 
part  of  the  people  it  will  evolve  a gigantic  combination  of 
business  companies,  each  local  in  initiation,  organization  and 
management,  but  co-ordinated  in  distributive  effects  through 
the  agency  of  a great  central  supervising  connection,  which 
will  be  invested  also  with  the  function  of  absorbing  the  gen- 
eral control  and  management  of  such  industries  as  one  by 
one  may  become  so  highly  organized  as  logically  and  naturally 
to  demand  it.  Commencing  with  the  functions  of  exchange, 
banking,  transportation,  communication,  etc.,  and  so  proceed- 
ing naturally  as  organization  is  perfected  and  requirements 
demand.  This  “great  combination”  of  companies  will  be  or- 
ganized for  the  ownership  of  each  industry  by  the  labor  em- 
ployed in  its  operation,  and  hence  the  organization  will  nat- 
urally proceed  along  the  lines  of  the  trades.  That  is,  finally 
each  trade  will  so  organize  its  industry  that  its  operations 
will  be  managed  from  a central  office,  reducing  "production  to 
a science,  practically  eliminating  all  waste  in  both  effort  and 


■38 


THE  COXSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


result.  And  yet  oijpre.ssion,  one  of  the  other,  Avill  be  impossi- 
ble, for  all  of  these  central  trades  ofHces  will  be  joined  to- 
gether in  a general  association  for  the  purpose  of  adjusting 
exchange  to  a basis  of  approximate  cost. 

This  will  be  the  final  consummation  of  the  present  some- 
what incoherent  attempts  at  conscious  and  voluntary  co-op- 
erative endeavor  among  the  “people.”  From  these  isolated 
and  systemless  attempts  will  develoiD  an  industrial  movement 
that  will  sweep  iDlutocraey  from  the  face  of  the  earth  \vith 
as  much  ease  as  a battleship  wmuld  sweep  a wooden  cruiser 
from  the  face  of  the  waters.  The  practical  means  of  effecting 
and  directing  the  development  of  such  industrial  organization, 
itself  will  of  course  be  based  largely  on  the  principles  herein 
discussed. 

As  tomorrow  slowly  and  imperceptiblj'  grows  out  of  today, 
so  will  the  new'  industrial  system  grow  out  of  the  old.  It  will  not 
spring  forth  in  a day  full  statured  and  full  panoplied,  perfect 
and  ideal.  It  will  develoi^  rapidly  and  spread  and  increase  as 
no  movement  of  the  x^ast  has  ever  done,  for  the  facilities  for 
organization  and  the  spread  of  information  concerning  new 
movements  are  greater  today  than  ever  before;  but  notwith- 
standing the  phenomenal  speed  with  which  transformations 
are  now  effected,  the  new  industrial  society  that  shall  reor-, 
ganize  ownership,  will  be  a develox^ment  and  not  a fiat  crea- 
tion, and  must  necessarily  therefore  conform  to  the  law  of 
grow'th,  here  a little  and  there  a little. 

And,  as  in  the  past,  the  people  organized  their  scattered 
physical  forces  and  opposed  them  to  organized  irresponsible 
force  and  overcame  it,  so  must  they  organize  their  scattered 
individual  ownership  (and  industrial  power  which  secures 
ownership,)  and  opx^ose  it  to  organized  irresponsible  owner- 
ship and  overcome  it;  and,  as  in  the  physical  conflict,  it  must 
be  done  with  the  view  of  (after  victory  won)  making  the  whole 
resulting  ownership  resx^onsible  to  the  people. 

These  lessons  learned  from  ages  of  political  conflict,  the 
people  are  already  pondering  in  their  application  to  the  indus- 
trial problem.  They  are  learning  that  it  is  not  simply  in  the 
realm  of  government  and  politics  that  men  cannot  be  trusted 
with  despotic  pow'er,  but  that  the  truth  applies  to  the  realm 
of  industry  as  well.  Hay,  they  are  beginning  to  see  that  every- 
where you  find  a man  you  find  the  principle,  that  human  nature 


SOME  PRINCIPLES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  39 


is  yet  so  constructed  that  in  its  selfishness  and  greed,  its  lust 
for  power  and  possession,  that  it  is  blundering  folly  to  place 
one's  self  within  reach  of  its  claws.  The  edict  is  now  being 
formulated  in  the  hearts  of  the  jaeople,  that  the  wild  beast 
in  man  must  be  perpetually  caged;  that  it  must  have  no  free 
field  in  which  to  hunt  its  prey,  and  that  least  of  all  may  that 
field  be  the  industrial  field. 

The  lesson  of  their  political  history  has  not  been  lost  upon 
them.  They  know  that  power  must  be  made  responsible,  and 
that  it  can  only  be  made  so  through  organization  motived  to 
that  end;  and  they  know  how  to  organize. 

Already  do  the  peo^Dle  know  that  not  conflict  but  combina- 
tion is  the  order  of  the  times;  that  not  competition  but  co-opera- 
tion, organized  and  controlled,  is  the  law  of  industrial  success; 
that  not  in  divided  but  in  united  ownership  lies  their  route  to 
economic  freedom.  And  they  are  to  apply  their  knowledge, 
to  cease  their  warring  with  each  other,  and  to  combine  and 
to  put  an  end  forever  to  irresi^onsible  conflict  in  ownership 
as  in  g'overnment. 

Slowly  but  surely  there  has  been  razed  out  from  the  hearts 
of  the  battling  millions  the  belief  inherited  from  the  isolated 
savage  ancestor  of  pre-Adamite  days,  that  each  must  needs 
fight  the  other  or  die.  And  slowly  but  surely  there  has  been 
graven  in  its  place  the  sentiments — “If  my  neighbor  would  not, 
neither  would  I;”  and  “would  that  we  all  might  work  together.” 
But  each,  though  quite  sure  of  his  own  heart,  is  not  quite  sure 
of  that  of  his  neighbor,  and  so  the  mighty  conflict  rages  even 
wilder  than  before.  Here  for  the  moment  lies  the  immediate 
cause  that  prevents  -svdde  and  rapid  organization  among  the 
people.  It  lies  in  a misunderstanding,  or  rather  lack  of  under- 
standing' each  of  the  other,  arising  from  the  survival  among 
us  of  the  instincts  and  habits  of  thought  of  the  isolated  savage 
ancestor.  The  situation  at  present  is  that  condition  of  tremb- 
ling uncertainty  which  immediately  precedes  a full  under- 
standing for  united  action. 


40 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OP  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  SIGNS  OF  THE  STORM. 

A COMPETENT  observer  of  events  during  the  last  de- 
cade of  the  nineteenth  century,  could  not  fail  to  no- 
tice an  uneasiness  and  unrest  among  the  people  that 
was  ominous  of  a fateful  change  in  both  society  and 
government.  The  times  were  rife  with  signs  of  an  impending 
crisis.  Men  were  gathering  and  grouping  and  dispersing  and 
realigning  in  a way  that  showed  a deep-seated  dissatisfaction 
witn  existing  conditions.  Their  movements  were  like  the  move- 
ments of  clouds  that  presage  the  storm.  There  were  currents 
and  counter-currents,  a marching  and  counter-marching  of 
forces,  a crossing  and  re-crossing  of  effort.  The  nation  was  in 
a ferment.  There  was  a manifest  electric  tension  in  the  indus- 
trial atmosphere  that  w^as  growing  slowly  but  surely  to  the 
breaking  point.  Whatever  might  be  the  cause — the  primary, 
the  remote,  the  real  root-cause  of  this  alarming  state  of  af- 
fairs— it  was  evident  that  the  immediate,  the  apparent  and 
proximate  cause  ■was  the  just  alarm  created  by  the  accelerated 
. movement  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation  into  the  hands  of  the 
comparative  few  individuals  and  corporations.  These  private 
accumulations  of  capital  were  already  so  vast  that  they  had 
become  an  acknowledged  source  of  many  of  the  most  pernic- 
ioTis  evils  that  beset  society  and  government. 

Chief  among  these  evils  was  the  reduction  of  the  masses 
to  a necessary  and  practically  a perpetual  poverty  'with  all  its 
attendant  hardships  and  seemingly  unavoidable  loss  of  man- 
hood and  independence,  resulting  as  it  finally  must  in  a dis- 
tinct lowering  of  the  national  character  and  tone.  And  intelli- 
gently realizing  the  injustice  and  wrong  of  the  situation,  know- 
ing that  the  condition  was  unnatural  and  artificial,  the  irrita- 
tion and  exasperation  of  the  people  w'ere  becoming  dangerous 
to  a peaceful  solution  of  the  difficulty. 

A close  second  to  this  chief  evil,  second  because  the  first 
made  the  second  largely  possible,  was  the  corrupt  and  corrupt- 
ing methods  and  power  of  the  o'^mers  of  these  aggregations  of 


THE  SIGMS  OF  THE  STOKM. 


41 


wealth  at  every  point  in  government  and  society  and  industry 
which  they  touched.  Let  Croesus  be  threatened  anywhere  with 
a curtailment  of  opportunity  for  increasing  his  profits  or  his 
possessions  and  consequent  power,  either  by  lawful  competi- 
tion or  by  governmental  restraint,  and  promptly  at  the  point 
of  attack,  whether  in  court  or  congress  or  political  arena  or 
in  the  field  of  commerce  or  industry,  there  appeared  his  cor- 
rupt and  defiling  representatives  each  an  expert  stategist  in 
the  work  assigned  him,  and  the  competition  disappeared  or 
the  governmental  powers  were  “fixed.” 

Hor  was  this  Modern-Man-of-'\Vealth  content  to  act  only 
when  threatened.  His  attitude  was  not  alone  defensive  by 
any  means,  but  it  was  aggressive  and  triumphant.  Flowing 
from  these  pregnant  sources  of  wwong-  and  injustice,  there 
came  the  overwhelming  tide  of  evils  that  were  adding  their 
irritant  poisons  to  the  body  industrial  and  the  body  politic. 
And  this  movement  of  wealth  from  the  hands  of  its  producers 
into  the  p>ossession  of  its  manipulators,  was,  as  stated  be- 
fore, an  accelerated  movement.  It  was  constantly  increas- 
ing. It  had  the  terrible  numerical  momentum  of  a geomet- 
rical progression.  The  complete  absorption  of  all  wealth, 
seemed  to  be  but  a question  of  time  and  continued  opportunity, 
resulting  as  the  natural  end  of  this  unnatural  movement  in 
an  industrial  dictatorship  by  the  Few.  But  the  people  were 
aroused  to  the  danger  of  the  situation,  and  their  activity, 
though  it  seemed  to  be  more  the  activity  of  ferment  than  of 
progress  in  any  single  direction,  boded  ill  for  the  continuance 
of  such  an  alarming  industrial  condition. 

But  notwithstanding  the  ferment  and  confusion  of  plans 
that  was  everywhere  so  apparent,  there  was  a general  (irift 
towards  a common  purpose,  and  that  purpose  was  the  simple 
but  difficult  one  of  curbing  the  industrial  power  of  those  dom- 
inating commercial  and  financial  gemuses  to  whom  the  com- 
petitive system,  the  machine  methods  and  the  organising  facili- 
ties of  the  times  gave  opportunities  so  large  for  the  exercise 
of  their  peculiar  talents,  that  the  produce  and  labor  of  the 
masses  were  becoming  as  subservient  to  their  manipulation 
and  control  as  in  other  times  the  people  themselves  had  been 
subject  to  military  masterships  and  governmental  despotisms. 
How  this  one  common  purpose  could  best  be  efletted  was  the 
supreme  question  of  the  times.  The  people  were  seeking  in 


42 


THE  COXSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


an  earnest  but  ineffective  way  for  an  effectual  remedy,  in  the 
hope  of  political  relief  they  were  moving  from  one  great  party 
to  the  other  or  massing  in  greater  or  lesser  numbers  in  new 
ones;  and  in  the  hope  of  direct  industrial  relief  they  were  <u- 
ganizing  societies  and  unions  and  orders  and  brotherhoods  and 
alliances  without  number.  Some  of  these  going  as  they  be- 
lieved to  the  root  of  the  trouble,  sought  to  show  the  people 
that  no  relief  short  of  a peaceful  reorganization  of  socic+5' 
under  a new  industrial  system  would  ever  prove  permanently 
effective.  But  the  great  majority  of  orders  and  unions  were 
simplj''  defensive  leagues  organized  bj’  the  laborers  in  particu- 
lar occupations  to  protect  themselves  from  a harsh  use  of  the 
power  which  the  competitive  wage  system  gave  to  the  great 
employers.  And  while  they  served  in  a manner  as  a temporary 
barrier  to  a full  and  free  exercise  of  irresponsible  authority 
of  the  latter,  they  were  proving  so  inadequate  and  unsatisfac- 
tory, that,  discouraged  and  desperate,  manj'  were  in  favor  of 
more  aggressive  measures.  Indeed,  at  the  time  of  the  open- 
ing of  our  story,  rumors  of  the  formation  of  societies  revolu- 
tionary in  their  objects  and  methods  were  already  beginning 
to  be  circulated  about  and  adding  their  mite  to  the  feeling  of 
uneasiness  that  generally  prevailed.  But  evidently  if  they  ex- 
isted at  all,  it  was  only  in  the  formative  stage,  for  nothing 
definite  was  heard  of  their  operations.  It  could  not  be  doubt- 
ed, however,  that  there  were  many  persons  whose  real  or 
fancied  grievances  or  sympathies  for  the  condition  of  the  poor 
or  indignation  at  the  methods  of  the  rich,  prepared  them  to 
join  in  any  rash  undertaking  or  desperate  enterprise  that 
might  be  presented  to  their  notice.  And  as  the  times  ripen  to 
any  action,  the  men  who  are  to  give  it  incarnate  direction  and 
force,  ripen  with  them.  So  with  this  incendiary  spirit  that  was 
spreading  to  some  extent  among  the  people;  there  were  men 
able  and  ready  to  organize  it.  The  industrial  condition  at  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  like  one  of  those  delicate 
chemical  solutions  which  if  gently  and  steadily  agitated  at 
the  proper  moment,  will  crystallize  into  beautiful  and  perma- 
nent forms;  but  which  if  shaken  rudely  or  inopportunely, 
will  explode  with  most  destructive  force.  It  was  a condition 
which  would  require  the  most  thoughtful  consideration  to 
determine  satisfactorily  upon  what  lines  of  principle  and  policy 
the  coming  revolution  of  industry  could  and  would  be  ef- 


THE  SIGNS  OF  THE  STOKA 


43- 


fev^.^ct;  for  the  people  felt  sure  that  some  miguty  reformatiou 
was  coming  and  that  it  would  not  be  long  delayed.  And  their 
very  activity,  their  arousement  to  a sense  of  their  wrongs,  was 
of  themselves  and  augury  of  their  triumidi,  though  that 
arousement  and  activity  displayed  themselves  in  many  evil 
and  dang’erous  tendencies.  The  one  thing  imperatively  need- 
ed was  honest  and  competent  leadership  to  the  end  that  the 
popular  forces  that  now  and  then  were  gathering  and  threat- 
ening to  break  in  stoi’m,  might  be  drawn  benignly  and  peace- 
fully into  a different  and  safer  order. 


44 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  WEALTH  TOWARDS  LABOR. 

F the  Hosts  of  Labor  were  thrilling  with  a new^  hope  and  a 
1 broader  purpose  and  were  grimly  and  determinedly  girding 
themselves  for  the  decisive  conflict  with  organized  capital 
^ which  they  saw  approaching,  the  latter  was  In  no  wise  cast 
down  nor  afraid.  A long  series  of  uninterrupted  triumphs 
had  made  the  capitalistic  employer  rather  contemptuous  of 
the  purposeless  multitude  with  whom  he  had  hitherto  to  con- 
tend. So  little  did  he  regard  the  actualities  of  its  power  that 
he  had  not  dignified  it  in  word  or  thought  with  a single  hos- 
tile name.  And  while  the  vocabulary  of  labor  was  full  of  war- 
like terms  with  regard  to  him,  his  had  absolutely  none  to 
match  them  in  return.  Indeed,  if  the  philologist  of  future 
ages  could  be  furnished  with  the  terminology  of  labor  and 
capital  with  resxiect  to  each  other,  the  history  of  the  industrial 
attitude  of  one  to  the  other  could  be  written  therefrom. 
He  did  not  look  upon  labor  as  his  foe,  as  his  adversary,  as  his 
enemy,  and  his  troubles  wth  it  did  not  shape  themselves  to 
his  mind  as  battles  or  conflicts  or  campaigns  or  wars.  He  did 
not  look  upon  it  even  as  an  aggregation  of  human  beings;  but 
from  a business  standpoint,  (and  he  but  rarely  and  moment- 
arily regarded  it  from  any  other,)  he  simply  thought  of  the 
working  class  as  a mighty,  money-making  machine,  the  con- 
trol of  which  naturally  and  necessarily  belonged  to  him  and 
the  product  of  whose  operation  just  as  naturally  and  neces- 
sarily became  his  property  to  dispose  of  as  he  pleased.  The 
personal  element  in  his  dealings  vvdth  it  did  not  seem  to  pene- 
trate to  his  consciousness  in  any  effective  way  at  all.  There 
was  immeasurably  less  of  it  in  the  relation  of  employer  and 
employe,  than  there  was  between  the  master  and  the  slave 
in  the  olden  days  of  chattel  slavery.  And  even  the  human 
sympathy  which  in  those  times  had  been  accorded  by  the  em- 
ploying white  man  to  his  poor,  wage-earning  white  brother, 
had  been  lost  in  the  machine-ideas  of  the  times.  The  work- 
ingman had,  so  far  as  the  capitalist  was  concerned,  become 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  WEALTH  TOWAEDS  LABOR. 


45 


simply  a machine.  And  if  the  wages  which  he  paid  him  covered 
the  physical  wear  and  tear  of  the  machine,  he  was  content; 
that  is,  if  the  food  and  clothing  and  shelter  which  he  accord- 
ed his  man-machine  would  keep  him  going  until  he  could  get 
another  at  the  same  price  or  less,  he  did  not  consider  the 
matter  further.  That  was  his  sole  concern.  And  as  the  sup- 
ply of  such  machines  far  exceeded  his  needs,  that  concern 
could  not  be  said  to  be  acute.  It  amounted  to  about  the  same 
that  the  president  of  a street  car  line  had  for  the  beasts  that 
pulled  his  cars  a few  years  since.  A certain  sum  had  to  be  set 
apart  for  their  maintenance  of  course,  but  that  amount  must 
be  kept  constantly  at  the  least  possible  minimum  in  order  that 
his  profits  might  be  kept  to  their  maximum.  If  there  was  any 
difference  between  the  conditions  of  the  man-machine 
wage-worker  and  the  street  car  beasts  it  was  entirely' 
in  favor  of  the  latter.  And  if  there  was  any  differ- 
ence between  the  moral  and  mental  attitude  of  the 
street  car  president  towards  his  horses,  and  that  of 
the  capitalistic  employer  towards  his  men,  it  was  as  certainly 
in  favor  of  the  former.  He  saw  to  it  that  his  stock  was  fed 
and  stabled  as  became  such  stock,  and  at  intervals  they  were 
sent  to  country  pastures  to  recuperate.  But  no  such  care 
troubled  the  employer  of  men.  Whether  they  were  fed  or 
sheltered  or  clothed  as  became  men  was  no  concern  of  his.  And 
the  country  pasture  was  a luxury  he  had  never  even  thought 
of  giving  them.  It  is  true  the  horse  car  president,  like  his 
capitalistic  brother,  frequently  drove  his  cattle  to  the  limit 
of  their  endurance,  and  when  they  became  disabled  or  worn 
out  or  old,  he  disposed  of  them  without  scruple;  but  again  the 
difference  was  in  favor  of  the  latter,  for  horses  were  worth 
more  than  men,  and  it  was  to  the  owner’s  interest  to  accord 
them  the  care  and  treatment  that  would  preserve  them  the 
longest.  Horses  had  to  be  bought  and  paid  for  and  then  pro- 
vided for  besides,  whereas  men  did  not  require  any  exjiendi- 
ture  to  own  them;  they  did  not  even  need  to  be  owned  in  a 
property  sense.  Their  first  cost  being  nothing  but  their  in- 
different keep,  their  employer  was  not  concerned  about  them 
in  the  least.  It  was  so  easy  to  supply  the  place  of  the  disabled 
and  worn  out  and  aged,  that  no  employer  looked  after  the  con- 
dition of  his  workers.  And  so  far  as  he  could  see  he  had  no 
motive  to  interest  himself  in  their  welfare  or  preservation. 


4C- 


THE  COXSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


Tile  man-machine  was  the  cheapest  machine  that  capital  could 
employ  considering'  alone  his  cost  and  maintenance,  and  there- 
fore he  was  given  the  least  thought  and  care.  From  time  to 
time  other  machines  had  been  invented  that  worked  better 
and  more  rapidly  than  the  man,  and  then  the  latter  was  dis- 
posed of  with  absolutelj^  no  thought  or  care  of  what  would  be- 
«ome  of  him.  That  he  went  to  swell  the  great  number  of  un- 
employed machines  that  were  automatically  going  about  hunt- 
ing' a job  and  finding  none,  was  a matter  of  iDrofound  indiffer- 
ence to  his  former  employer.  Therefore,  if  he  thought  about  it 
at  all,  it  was  rather  with  satisfaction,  because  he  knew  that 
every  addition  to  the  number  of  the  unemployed  made  the  em- 
ployed cheaper  and  his  profits  by  that  much  the  greater.  As 
compared  with  the  street  car  drudges,  the  superfluous  man- 
machine  was  again  at  a disadvantage.  He  now  became  what 
capitalized  society  and  capitalized  laws  and  capitalized  govern- 
ment called  a nuisance,  and  labelled  a vagrant,  an  incompe- 
tent, an  incapable — one  of  the  permanently  pauperized  and 
submerged.  And  as  between  the  man  and  the  animal  turned 
loose  under  such  conditions  to  hunt  their  living  in  the  world 
the  animal  had  decidedly  the  best  of  it. 

The  machine  idea  had  completely  displaced  the  human  in 
the  mind  of  the  wage  employer.  And  it  was  not  that  he  was 
cruel  that  the  displacement  had  been  wrought.  The  capitalist 
could  no  more  be  charged  with  cruelty  in  his  dealings  'U'ith 
labor  than  the  cat  in  his  play  with  the  mouse.  Cruelty  in- 
volves an  active,  conscious  infliction  of  unnecessary  pain  or 
distress.  That  could  not  be  predicated  of  either  the  cat  or  the 
capitalist.  Neither  could  it  be  said  of  the  latter  that  he  was 
heartless  or  unfeeling,  unmerciful  or  unjust.  Those  words, 
while  negative  in  form  have  come  to  be  in  a sense  strongly 
affirmative  of  a positive  feeling,  and  feeling  in  the  dealing.'; 
of  capital  with  labor  had  been  absolutely  eliminated.  Pure 
negation  alone  could  truly  represent  the  state  of  mind  of 
the  former  with  reference  to  the  latter.  That  is.  the  element 
of  justice  or  mercy  or  heart  was  simply  absent  from  his  con- 
sciousness either  one  way  or  the  other.  He  did  not  conceive 
of  them  as  having  any  place  in  his  business  or  reckonings.  That 
such  a remarkable  psychological  condition  is  incomprehensible 
except  perhaps  as  one  comes  to  understand  the  industrial  sys- 
tem under  which  it  was  developed,  is  readily  admitted.  But 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  WEALTH  TOWAEDS  LABOE. 


47 


that  it  existed,  no  one  could  successfully  deny.  It  manifested 
itself  in  a variety  of  ways  and  wrought  effects  as  remarkable 
and  j)eculiar  as  the  cause  that  produced  them  and  equallj'  as 
incomprehensible  and  unexplainable  except  as  above  suggest- 
ed. For  instance,  the  transformation  of  the  laborer  into  the 
capitalist  wrought  at  once  the  transformation  of  a conscious 
victim  into  an  unconscious  oppressor.  And  yet  indeed,  cruelty 
and  oppression  could  no  more  be  charged  to  such  a trans- 
formed man  than  one  born  to  the  state;  for  as  explained 
above,  that  which  is  necessary  cannot  be  truly  said  to  be  either 
oppressive  or  cruel,  and  his  new  attitude  now  became  to  him 
ooth  natural  and  necessary  under  the  system  upon  which  busi- 
ness Vv'as  operated.  Sometimes  he  was  called  a xraitor  to  the 
class  to  which  he  formerly  belonged;  but  he  was  not,  any  more 
than  the  imago  is  traitor  to  the  larva.  The  metamorphosis  was 
as  natural  to  him  under  the  industrial  system  that  developed 
him,  as  that  of  the  insect  is  to  it. 

Another  instance  of  the  wonderful  effect  of  the  condition 
mentioned,  and  xierhaps  the  most  notable  instance  of  all,  was 
in  the  strange  inconsistency  of  the  religious  professions  and 
the  industrial  practices  of  the  times.  Nominally,  the  civiliza- 
tion was  Christian;  but  really  as  judged  bj^  its  social  and  indus- 
trial systems,  its  most  significant  fruits,  it  was  anti-Christ. 
A religion  was  professed  that  was  altruistic.  Socialistic  and  un- 
selfish in  the  extreme,  but  life  was  spent  in  a selfish  and  savage 
struggle  among  men  to  live  upon  the  labor  of  others.  He  who 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago  taught  the  highest  type  of  lib- 
erty, equality  and  fraternity,  was  glorified  as  a God;  he  who 

practiced  it  today  was  jailed  as  a vagrant  or  submerged  and 

permanently  x>auperized.  ‘’Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that 
they  should  do  unto  you,”  was  the  Golden  Eule  that  the  peo- 
ple praised;  do  unto  others  as  you  would  that  they  should  NOT 
do  unto  you,  was  the  rule  that  they  practiced.  To  love  one’s 
neighbor  as  one’s  self  was  the  height  of  their  religion;  to 

live  upon  him  was  their  highest  ambition.  And  to  add  to  the 

strang’eness  of  this  strange  inconsistency,  it  usually  increased 
in  direct  x>rox>ortion  to  the  amount  of  one’s  possessions.  Among 
the  poor,  among  the  toilers  of  the  earth,  it  was  the  least  to  be 
noticed  or  found.  There  religion  and  life  most  closely  con- 
formed; but  the  gap  widened  as  the  rich  were  reached,  so 
that  the  difference  between  profession  and  practice  could 


4S 


THE  COXSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


largely  be  measured  by  the  distance  between  poverty  and 
wealth.  But  the  most  wonderful  thing  about  the  whole  mat- 
ter was  that  as  the  gap  increased,  the  ability  to  see  it  de- 
creased. The  immediate  and  pressing  physical  necessities  of 
the  poor,  the  broad  apology  with  which  they  bridged  the  dif- 
ference between  their  conception  of  duty  to  their  fellows  and 
their  performance  of  it,  though  substantial  as  the  earth  itself, 
seemed  to  them  but  weak  and  inadequate  and  they  trod  it  but 
falteringly  and  with  much  self-condemnation;  but  the  Al-Sirat 
which  the  rich  had  thrown  across  the  mighty  chasm  between 
their  religion  and  their  life,  though  narrower  than  the  hair- 
like  thread  which  the  Moslem  prophet  stretched  between  earth 
and  heaven  over  an  intervening  hell,  seemed  ft)  the  narrow 
vision  of  wealth  to  cover  it  completely,  and  they  rolled  along 
with  the  comforting  congratulation  that  it  would  bear  them 
safely  across;  and  those  who  had  the  most  beatific  mental 
visions  of  ethical  ideals  and  the  best  opportunities  of  approx- 
imating them  in  their  lives,  had  the  least  intention  of  doing 
so.  And  while  thej'  were  the  most  vociferous  in  their  ecstatic 
praise  of  the  “Christian  civilization”  of  the  age,  they  did  not 
seem  to  perceive  that  what  they  would  define  as  “Christian” 
and  what  thej'  would  point  to  as  “civilization,”  (namely,  them- 
selves,) were  in  antipodes.  Such  a curious  mental  and  moral 
strabismus  like  the  visual  limitations  with  which  is  was  ac- 
companied, was  the  most  acute  in  the  possessors  of  the  heav- 
iest purses.  The  weight  of  the  pocketbook  seemed  to  have  a most 
intimate  though  occult  and  esoteric  effect  upon  the  conscience 
and  indeed  upon  all  those  human  attributes  that  are  usually 
described  as  domiciled  in  the  heart.  And  the  effect  was  al- 
wajn  damaging.  And  so  powerful  was  it  that  it  seemed  to  be 
communicated  in  a no  less  degree  to  those  who  spiritually  min- 
istered to  such  afflicted  persons.  Indeed,  it  was  frequently  the 
case  that  those  who  devoted  their  lives  (for  a price)  to  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  or  churchianity  as  it  had  properly 
come  to  be  called,  were  themselves  the  most  in  need  of  the 
services  of  a surgeon  skilled  in  the  science  of  ethical  optics. 
And  so  completely  paralyzing  was  this  effect  upon  the  senses 
touched,  that  it  destroyed  along  with  them  all  consciousness 
of  their  destruction.  As  the  man  with  a paralyzed  arm  knows 
of  its  presence  only  by  the  uncanny  swing  of  the  shriveled  mem- 
ber, so  with  these  wealth  dessicated  and  mumyfied  senses  and 


THE  ATTITUDE  OE  WEALTH  TOWAEDS  LABOE. 


49 


faculties  and  attributes;  those  who  were  afflicted  with  them,  if 
they  knew  of  it  at  all,  knew  it  only  by  the  dread  swing  of 
their  lifeless  weight.  But  this  loss  of  consciousness,  singular 
as  the  victim  was  made  to  appear,  was  simply  but  a manifesta- 
tion of  the  hopelessness  of  the  malady.  And  in  view  of  the  uni- 
formity of  such  manifestations  among  the  capitalistic  employ- 
ers and  possessors  of  fortunes  generally,  any  attempt  at  the 
moral  arousement  of  wealth  to  a realization  of  approaching  dan- 
ger might  rightly  be  declared  futile.  The  man  who  could  unethi- 
cally gather  thousands  from  the  necessities  of  those  whom  he 
called  his  laborers  and  capitalize  the  sweat  that  represented 
their  lives  and  call  it  his,  and  live  in  luxury  upon  its  dividends 
while  they  eked  out  a miserable  existence  in  the  want  of  their 
own  which  he  possessed,  and  yet  with  apparent  sineerity  re- 
gard himself  as  THE  representative  of  a “Christian  civiliza- 
tion;” the  man  who  could  send  his  agent  through  tenements 
which  he  would  not  enter,  to  collect  rent  for  apartments  which 
even  if  chemically  clean  he  would  not  live  in  for  any  pay  and  of 
which  he  would  not  go  within  two  blocks  from  fear  of  offend- 
ing his  specialized  olfactories  and  yet  regards  the  moral  odor 
which  surrounds  himself  as  partaking  of  the  spice  and  myrrh  of 
the  Indies;  the  man  who  could  draw  on  a heavy  storm  coat  in 
winter  over  a form  already  thickly  and  warmly  clad,  and  indif- 
ferently stride  past  little  ones  barefooted  and  ragged  and 
pinched  with  cold,  whose  chattering  teeth  and  purple  lips  were 
hardly  able  to  form  the  words  “paper,  sir?”  which  theypatienlly 
called  out  to  his  deaf  ears,  and  yet  believe  himself  to  be  human 
and  humane;  the  man  who  spends  with  one  hand  princely  thou- 
sands which  he  has  just  filched  with  the  other  from  hunger  and 
poverty,  and  yet  looks  upon  his  luxurious  and  selfish  expendi- 
tures as  a generous  “distribution”  of  money  among  the  people 
and  iipon  himself  as  a sort  of  God  come  down  among  men;  a 
man  who  can  minister  to  his  self-esteem  and  vanity  by  estab- 
lishing universities  and  schools  and  libraries  and  gifts  to  the 
public  which  he  has  systematically  robbed  and  which  he  con- 
tinues to  rob,  and  grandly  makes  to  a poverty  stricken  people 
a present  which  is  really  only  a miserable  pittance  of  the 
amount  which  he  has  squeezed  from  their  hard  earnings 
through  a series  of  years,  and  yet  really  thinks  himself  benevo- 
lent and  charitable  and  a benefactor  to  his  race — such  a man  is 
hardly  a hopeful  subjeet  for  the  moral  suasionist  to  operate 


5() 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


upon.  And  &uch  a man  was  the  representative  wealthy  man  of 
the  times.  To  him  in  an  industrial  way,  the  people  were  simply 
machines  to  create  him  his  wealth;  in  a social  way  they  were 
machines  to  minister  to  his  wants  and  luxurious  living;  while 
in  a public  way  (if  that  is  the  right  phrase)  they  ought  at  least 
to  be  his  admirers  and  sycophants,  nay,  his  incense-burners 
■and  worshippers,  catering  to  his  vanity,  his  self-esteem,  his 
egotism. 

The  attitude  of  capital  towards  labor,  of  wealth  towards 
poverty,  was  the  result  of  a habit  of  thought  on  the  part  of 
the  dominant  class  which  centuries  of  uninterrupted  ascendan- 

had  moulded  into  its  verj^  character  and  to  man}'  seemed 
one  of  its  necessary  and  natural  attributes.  And  that  such 
ascendency  was  directly  and  solely  due  from  a remedial  stand- 
point to  the  competitive  wage  system  among  producers  and  to 
private  and  irresponsible  control  of  capital  seems  beyond  dis- 
pute. It  is  true  that  it  might  be  said  to  be  due  the  individual 
superiority  of  those  who  manifested  the  ability  to  pocket  the 
earth,  and  that  the  possession  in  a high  degree  of  the  predatory 
and  acquisitive  instincts  gave  them  a natural  advantage  which 
under  any  industrial  system  would  give  them  the  advantage. 
Just  as  predacious  and  acquisitive  animals  have  a natural  ad- 
vantage over  other  animals.  Such  a contention  could  not  be 
denied.  But  that  the  ascendant  predacious  and  acquisitive  man 
had  devised  a system  that  directly  tended  to  specialize  his  pe- 
culiar qualities  was  equally  true;  and  that  it  had  specialized 
those  animal  qualities  was  a patent  every  day  fact  of  which 
there  was  visible  proof  in  the  capitalist  of  the  times.  The 
same  offensive  faculties  had  for  centuries  been  ascendant  in 
the  political  world  and  the  remedy  had  been  in  changing  the 
system  under  which  they  had  such  free  play  and  adopting  one 
which  had  for  its  object  their  suppression.  In  like  manner  it 
could  not  be  doubted  that  the  remedy  must  be  directed  against 
the  system  and  not  against  the  individual.  Logically  therefore 
the  truth  is  as  stated  above,  that  from  a practical  remedial 
standpoint  the  fault  was  in  the  system  and  not  in  the  man. 

As  affecting  the  crisis  that  was  approaching,  the  machine- 
idea  which  the  capitalist  had  formed  of  the  working-man.  and 
the  condition  of  mind  of  the  former  which  ignored  the  hun;an 
qualities  of  the  latter,  had  also  curiously  destroyed  in  him  any 
practical  fear  of  his  dangerous  hostility.  The  capitalist  was 


THE  ATTITUDE  OP  WEALTH  TOWARDS  LABOR. 


51 


going-  as  unconsciously  to  his  destruction  as  a deaf  and  blind 
man  caught  in  the  swirling  waters  of  the  Niagara.  And  as  said 
before,  to  him  there  was  no  war,  no  struggles,  no  battles  be- 
tween them.  As  a machine  could  not  be  said  to  be  hostile,  to 
be  an  enemy  to  a man;  so  neither  could  labor  be  practically 
thought  of  by  the  capitalist  in  such  terms.  It  might,  like  any 
other  machine,  be  difficult  at  times  to  operate;  it  might  be 
troublesome;  it  might  possibly  at  times  be  locally  and  spasmod- 
ically dangerous;  but  that  was  the  extent  of  the  capitalists 
practical  fear  of  labor.  On  no  other  theory  could  the  calmness 
with  which  he  pursued  his  methods  against  the  latter,  and  pro- 
gressively intensified  them  in  the  face  of  the  agitation  that  was 
going  on,  be  explained.  From  the  low  plane  of  his  selfishness 
it  seemed  to  him  that  the  narrow  circle  of  calm  waters  which 
the  oil  of  his  wealth  created  immediately  about  his  small  per- 
sonality, was  a large  part  of  the  ocean  itself,  and  big  enough 
and  broad  and  strong  enough  to  protect  him  from  the  raging 
seas  that  might  be  tossing  beyond.  Indeed,  to  change  the  figure, 
so  far  from  fearing  the  storm  that  was  rising  about  him,  he 
contemplated  it  with  the  same  feeling  of  personal  security  and 
nebulous  gratification  with  which  the  well-warmed  and  well- 
housed  in  winter  listen  to  the  noise  of  the  warring  elements 
without.  And  if  to  the  illustration  it  should  be  added  that 
the  well-warmed  and  well-housed  knew  as  they  sat  in  the 
comforting  light  and  heat  of  their  luxurious  apartments  and 
enjoyed  the  storm,  that  thousands  i^pon  thousands  of  their  fel- 
low-creatures were  exposed  to  the  blasts  of  snow  and  sleet  and 
torturing  cold  and  were  huddled  in  pitiful  groujjs,  shelterless, 
ragged  and  starving,  dying  miserable  deaths;  that  through  the 
protecting  walls  that  shut  them  in  to  warmth  and  life,  and 
their  perishing  brothers  and  sisters  out  to  darkness  and  dvatb 
they  could  hear  the  moans  and  cries  of  the  suffering  ones;  and 
through  their  windows  see  the  shadowy  storm-swept  forms  of 
the  despairing  men  and  tortured  women  and  clinging  children 
as  they  went  stumbling,  reeling,  staggering  along  in  the  night 
— then  the  picture  of  the  modern  capitalistic  employer  in  his 
comfort  and  securitj^  and  in  his  general  attitude  towards  labor 
and  labor  troubles  would  be  complete.  Nay,  not  quite  complete 
either,  for  somehow  the  artist  would  have  to  depict  the  fact 
that  the  luxurious  individuals  within  the  house,  not  only  en- 
joyed in  an  animal  way  the  outside  storm  and  human  distress 


52 


'THE  CONSPIEACY  OP  CAPITAL. 


which,  it  inflicted;  but  that  they  were  the  cause  of  the  shelter- 
less condition  of  the  starved  and  naked  ones  without;  and  by 
a last  stroke  of  his  power  he  would  have  to  limn  on  his  can- 
vass as  the  plaything  of  the  refi.ned  civilization  within,  the 
Wonderful  wand  of  Prospero  with  which  had  been  raised  the 
tempest  they  had  neither  the  heart  nor  the  art  to  stay.  And  as 
the  element  of  security  is  probably  the  underlying  one  in  our 
enjoyment  of  the  wintry  storms  that  break  upon  our  house,  so 
it  was  with  the  plundering  despot  of  industry;  the  one  thing  of 
"Which  he  seemed  most  complacently  confident  was  that  the  mis- 
erable hordes  without  could  not  break  into  the  charmed  circle 
which  his  wealth  had  drawn  around  him  and  his  personally. 
He  did  not  consider  himself  as  forming  any  element  in  the  labor 
problem.  Labor  troubles  were  not  his  troubles.  They  be- 
longed solely  and  alone  to  the  laboring  people.  They 
could  fight  it  out  among  themselves.  And  according  to  his 
view  that  was  what  they  were  doing.  From  his  standpoint 
the  labor  trouble  was  simply  a fight  between  laborers.  He 
looked  down  upon  their  struggles  with  but  little  more  personal 
feeling  than  the  Homan  nobles  looked  down  upon  the  gladiator- 
ial combats  in  the  bloody  circus  below.  And  as  the  spectators 
of  those  barbarous  human  shows  probably  cared  but  little 
about  the  personal  feeling  of  the  exhibited  combatants  to- 
wards themselves;  so  the  modern  spectator  (as  the  capitalist 
regarded  himself)  cared  even  less  about  what  bitterness  mjght 
be  in  the  heart  of  the  warring  workers  below  him  regarding 
himself.  That  was  a matter  of  absolutely  no  importance.  They 
could  no  more  reach  him  than  the  baited  beasts  and  men  in  the 
ancient  amphitheater  of  Home  could  reach  the  tiers  of  holi- 
day barbarians  that  were  ranged  so  cruelly  about  them.  He 
was  safe.  He  was  entrenched  -within  the  law.  He  controlled 
its  engines  and  the  operation  of  all  its  machinery.  He  was  the 
law.  “Be  it  enacted,”  and  “stare  decisis”  were  but  the  seals  of 
his  power  and  government  was  but  a method  of  its  manifesta- 
tion. What  should  be  fear?  Why  should  he  be  afraid?  He 
could  only  be  attacked  by  aggression.  Aggression  against  the 
law,  against  him,  was  crime;  it  w-as  lawlessness.  And  between 
him  and  crime,  between  him  and  lawlessness,  between  him  and 
aggressive  labor,  there  stood  the  power  of  the  Xation  itself. 
If  the  aggression  took  the  form  of  the  mob,  of  the  riot,  the  bar- 
rier between  him  and  its  fury  was  the  police,  the  courts,  the 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  WEALTH  TOWAEDS  LABOE. 


53 


sheriffs  and  their  deputies  and  the  posje  coinitatus.  If  the 
riot  grew  to  the  revolution  a still  mightier  bulwark  was  his — 
the  military  power  of  the  Nation  which  rested  on  the  millions  of 
the  middle  classes  who  were  depended  on  to  sustain  the  “gov- 
ernment” in  its  more  serious  crises.  They  were  the  great  stone 
wall  through  which  aggressive  labor  must  batter  its  way  be- 
fore it  could  get  at  him.  This  powerful  conservative  element 
in  the  nation  was  at  once  both  the  true  basis  of  his  security 
and  the  most  impervious  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the  cause 
of  labor.  From  the  very  nature  of  its  conservatism,  as  of  con- 
servatism in  general,  while  it  prevented  hasty  and  ill-consider- 
ed radical  action,  it  also  just  as  effectually  blocked  the  way  to 
necessary  and  wholesome  reforms.  And  behind  its  stolid  and 
stony  front  the  forces  of  evil  and  corruption  always  sought  to 
mass  themselves.  No;  he  could  have  no  doubt  of  his  security. 
The  tempest  might  beat  around  him  but  not  upon  him.  He  was 
under  the  canvass  of  the  Gladiatorial  Circus  but  not  in  the  ring, 
a difference  which  to  him  had  in  it  all  the  vastness  of  the  dis- 
tance between  heaven  and  hell.  And  whether  or  not  labor  was 
organized  seemed  to  have  not  the  weight  of  a straw.  As  long 
as  toiler  had  to  strive  with  toiler  it  mattered  not  whether  they 
were  organized  or  not.  As  long  as  there  was  a multitude  of 
unemployed  starving  for  work,  clamoring  for  places  already 
filled,  the  strongest  Labor  Organization  must  form  but  a rope 
of  sand.  As  long  as  one  could  jjroduce  enough  for  ten  the 
Unity  of  Labor  under  the  competitive  system  of  “private  con- 
trol” must  be  but  a dream  of  childish  hope.  For  as  long  as 
such  conditions  existed  and  such  an  industrial  system  prevailed, 
labor  troubles  must  be  largely  as  the  capitalist  conceived  them 
to  be — struggles  between  the  laborers  themselves,  a striving 
together  for  places  to  work,  for  an  opportunity  to  become  his 
servants  and  supporters.  And  as  long  as  they  were  fighting 
among  themselves  they  certainly  could  not  appear  to  be  con- 
ducting a very  vigorous  campaign  against  their  alleged  oppres- 
sors. The  fact  seemed  to  be  that  labor  having  seen  the  effec- 
tiveness of  the  Organization  of  Capital,  concluded  that  its  pow- 
er lay  in  its  organization.  And  applying  the  faulty  logic  to  its 
own  miserable  condition  it  determined  that  the  only  complete 
and  effective  remedy  for  it  was  likewise  in  organization  alone. 
It  lost  sight  of  the  truth  that  organization  is  not  power,  but 
simply  a means  of  applying  pow"er  and  of  increasing  its  effec- 


54 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CxVPITAL, 


tiveness.  Now  effectiveness  is  the  very  thing  desired,  and  it 
depends  as  much  upon  the  direction  in  which  power  is  applied 
as  upon  organization.  If  power  is  directed  towards  an  impossi- 
ble result  organization  will  not  help  it.  Indeed,  the  more  or- 
ganizations, the  more  v^ste  of  power.  If  a forest  fire  is  raging 
and  a body  of  men  start  out  to  fight  it,  they  could  best  do  it  of 
course  in  an  organized  way;  but  if  the  organized  body  is  set  to 
thrashing  the  smoke  or  fanning  the  fiames  they  will  never  put 
out  the  fire,  however  perfect  their  organization.  If  an  army, 
drilled  and  disciplined  fire  its  shot  into  the  air,  it  will  never  win 
a victory  over  any  formidable  foe,  however  admirable  its  ma- 
neuvers. If  a multitude  of  slaves  compelled  to  maintain  them- 
selves under  masters  who  had  places  for  onlj^  half  of  them 
should  make  a stand  for  freedom,  they  could  best  exert  their 
strength  through  organization;  but  if  that  strength  was  ex- 
pended only  in  an  effort  to  secure  a milder  slavery  for  some  of 
them;  if  it  was  expended  under  a system  devised  by  the  mas- 
ters for  themselves  and  adapted  solely  to  their  benefit,  organiz- 
ation would  never  effect  their  freedom. 


SOME  MISTAKES  OF  OKGANIZED  LABOR. 


55 


CHAPTER  XI. 


SOME  MISTAKES  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR. 

SO  it  was  with  labor.  It  had  learned  the  power  of 
organization,  but  had  stopped  in  its  reformatory 
progress  with  the  half-truth.  And  in  dynamics  a half- 
truth  is  no  better  than  a who  is  error.  The 
fatal  weakness  lay  in  the  false  direetioa  of  the  ap- 
plication of  its  organizd  strength.  It  had  continued  to  apply 
its  toil  under  the  directing,  private,  irresponsible  control  of  the 
very  foe  it  had  organized  to  light.  It  had  failed  to  discover  that 
the  effective  power  of  capital  lay  as  much  in  the  Industrial 
System  under  which  it  operated  labor,  as  in  its  organization; 
nay,  more;  for  in  the  system  lay  its  real,  natural  power,  while 
in  its  organization  lay  indeed,  but  an  artificial  means  of  apply- 
ing it. 

In  the  misdirection  of  the  application  of  labor’s  organized 
pow'er,  in  the  false  objective  which  it  was  pursuing,  could  be 
found  the  reason  of  its  comparative  failure.  From  the  stand- 
point of  capital,  labor  was  but  applying  to  itself  unconsciously 
the  suggestion  of  the  man  who  would  bury  the  devil  face  down- 
ward, and  if  he  ever  got  out  he  wmuld  have  to  go  through  hell 
to  do  it.  So  with  labor;  if  it  ever  achieved  freedom  by  scratch- 
ing down  through  the  earth  of  competition,  it  would  have  to  go 
through  the  fires  of  revolution  to  do  it.  And  to  this  failure  to 
grasp  the  whole  truth  might  be  ascribed  the  reason  of  organ- 
ized labor’s  pitifully  short  application  of  some  of  the  grandest 
principles  which  were  even  then,  notwithstanding  such  short- 
ened applications,  moulding  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  people 
to  higher  conceptions  of  life  and  duty. 

One  of  these  principles,  a favorite  motto  of  the  LTnions,  was. 
that  “an  injury  to  one  was  the  concern  of  all.’’  It  was  laid, 
down  as  the  basis  upon  which  organized  labor  was  built.  And 
yet  an  “injury”  as  conceived  by  the  unions,  consisted  in  a dis- 
charge of  an  employed  man,  a cut  in  his  wages  or  discrimination 
against  him  as  a union  man.  But  the  unemployed  man,  non- 
union or  union,  the  man  hunting  a job  and  finding  none,  the  man 


56 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


soul-worried  for  work  and  denied  it  at  any  price,  did  not  enjoy 
an  injury  that  was  the  eoncern  of  anybody.  It  was  only  to  the 
employed  union  man  or  at  most  to  an  unemployed  one  dis- 
eriminated  against  when  employment  was  to  be  had  that  this 
mighty  solidifying  sentiment  of  humanity  could  be  applied. 
They  were  apparently  the  only  ones  against  whom  an  injury 
could  be  committed.  While  the  truth  would  appear  to  be  that 
the  employed  man  who  was  paying  practical  allegiance  to  the 
system  of  private  control  of  employed  labor  and  of  labor-em- 
ploying industries,  by  accepting  work  under  the  capitalistic 
employer  at  any  wages  however  high,  was  himself  committing 
the  greatest  injury  of  all  against  his  class  fellows.  Organized 
labor  would  order  a strike  or  a boycott  against  an  employer 
who  refused  them  work,  when  it  coiild  perhaps  be  shown 
that  these  union  weapons  should  have  been  directed  against 
the  capitalist  who  presumed  to  offer  them  employment  under 
the  system  of  Labor  Ownership  which  he  practically  as- 
serted over  them.  Speaking  from  the  standpoint  of  capital 
again,  i.  appeared  that  labor’s  peculiar  definition  of  an  injury 
and  the  singular  limitations  which  it  placed  upon  its  applica- 
tion were  as  pitifully  inadequate  as  if  in  olden  times  the  chat- 
tel slaves  had  organized  under  the  same  great  motto  and  had 
declared  an  injury  to  their  fellows  to  be,  not  slavery  itself,  but 
some  one  of  the  lesser  hardships  which  their  masters  occa- 
sionally imposed  upon  them.  It  was  as  if  these  union  slaves  had 
defined  the  greatest  injury  which  one  of  their  fellows  could 
inflict  upon  another  to  be,  not  a submission  to  slavery,  but  a 
submission  to  any  other  than  their  particular  brand  of  slavery 
and  had  declared  a relentless  war  upon  the  serf  who  so  far 
forgot  his  duty  as  to  depart  from  their  peculiar  code  of  in- 
dustrial ethics,  ignoring  the  cruel  fact  that  his  enslaved  condi- 
tion physically  required  his  submission  to  any  hardships  and  to 
any  brand  of  slavery  w'hich  his  master  might  impose  and  not 
perceiving  that  the  internecine  warfare  so  carried  on  must 
prove  perpetual  and  force  their  persecuted  brethren  into  the 
position  of  buffers  to  their  masters  against  whom  they  had 
originally  organized.  Such  a childish  apprehension  and  appli- 
cation of  a great  principle  would  appear  ludicrous  if  the  serious 
consequences  which  resulted  from  it  had  not  made  it  pro- 
foundlj'^  pitiful  to  the  humane  observer. 

It  was  this  adherence  to  a false  industrial  system,  a system 


SOME  MISTAKES  OF  OEGANIZED  LABOE. 


57 


that  was  primarily  the  cause  of  all  the  evils  from  which  they 
suffered,  that  made  their  struggles  appear  hopeless  of  perma- 
nent success  though  the  hopelessness  did  not  lessen  the  neces- 
sity of  continued  effort.  But  aside  from  this  most  fatal  error, 
this  capital  inconsistency  of  warring  with  each  other  over  the 
necessary  evils  of  a system  and  not  upon  the  system  itself, 
there  appeared  another  only  less  inconsistent  and  fatal  than 
the  first,  namely,  the  strange  practical  indifference  which  or- 
ganized labor  showed  towards  the  unemployed.  After  recog- 
nizing the  right  of  capital  to  the  private  control  and  practical 
ownership  of  labor  and  labor  employing  industries,  it  would 
appear  that  the  first  and  most  unyielding  demand  which  the 
unions  would  have  made  of  Master  Capital  would  be  to  give  em- 
ployment to  all.  Certainly  if  capital  claimed  the  right  to  own 
and  control  the  means  of  production  and  necessarily  therefore 
the  producers  themselves,  then  it  would  seem  that  the  greatest 
injury  which  it  could  inflict  upon  labor  would  be  to  deny  it 
access  to  the  producing  means  for  any  cause  whatever.  When 
therefore  organized  labor  planted  itse*..  upon  the  principle  that 
“an  injury  to  one  was  the  concern  of  all,”  it  would  naturally 
have  been  supposed  that  this  unemployed  man,  this  most  in- 
jured of  their  fellow's,  would  have  been  the  object  of  their  first 
and  highest  concern;  that  around  him  they  would  have  rallied 
ail  their  forces  and  upon  his  wrong  staked  the  righteousness 
of  their  cause,  giving  him  as  he  deserved  their  heartiest,  their 
most  loyal  and  undaunted  support.  But  instead  of  recognizing 
his  injury  as  the  first  and  greatest,  it  was  practically  not  re- 
cognized at  all.  Nay,  not  satisfied  with  the  negative  stultifica- 
tion of  their  basic  principle,  all  the  power  of  organized  labor 
was  actually  turned  against  this  miserable  unfortunate.  That 
is  to  say,  it  was  selfishly  used  to  keep  those  in  their  places  who 
had  work,  to  increase  their  wages,  to  prevent  a decrease,  to 
get  recognition  for  the  unions  and  occasionally  to  secure  short- 
er hours.  After  these  selfish  objects  were  effected  perhaps  the 
unemployed  man  would  come  in  for  a job;  but  the  prospect 
wasn’t  very  encouraging  for  the  labor-saving  machines  which 
were  being  added  so  rapidly  to  productive  industry  were  in- 
creasing the  number  of  the  employless  men  beyond  all  reasona- 
ble hope  of  a substantial  decrease  being  effected  by  even  the 
most  powerful  union  of  labor  under  the  prevailing  system. 

To  intensify  this  condition  and  destroy  the  faintest  vestige 


58 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


of  such  a hope,  it  had  become  the  policy  of  capital  to  limit  pro- 
duction in  order  to  keep  up  prices  and  profits,  and  thus  thou- 
sands of  others  could  be  added  to  their  ranks  at  the  nod  of 
some  industrial  despot.  And  instead  of  the  desperate  situa- 
tion of  this  despairing'  class  being-  made  the  subject  of  the 
practical  sympathy  of  organized  labor,  instead  of  its  deep  in- 
jury being  declared  the  gravest  of  all  injuries  which  under  the 
industrial  system  in  vogue  could  be  inflicted  upon  a man,  in- 
stead of  its  cause  being  made  the  first  and  chiefest  concern  of 
organized  labor,  which  it  would  seem  the  astutest  policy  -would 
have  dictated,  to  say  nothing  of  principle,  (for  they  could  hope 
to  make  no  jirogress  until  this  body  of  starving  men  were 
somehow  absorbed  into  jiroductive  industry,)  instead  of  all  this 
it  was  made  the  target  of  bitterest  attacks;  for  if  an  unemploy- 
ed man  should  seek  employment  in  a manner  contrary  to  the 
ethical  law  which  organized  labor  had  established,  he  commit- 
ted a crime  for  which  death  itself  was  often  not  too  harsh  a 
punishment.  The  boycott,  the  strike,  class  ostracism  would 
be  used  against  him  until  he  was  driven  from  emploj-ment  or 
into  the  union.  But  if  he  took  refuge  in  the  union  his  condi- 
tion was  no  better,  for  the  union  did  not  guarantee  him  work 
nor  support  and  refused  to  recognize  his  employless  condition 
as  an  injury  to  him  which  required  any  practical  action  in  his 
behalf.  Cajaital  was  no  less  merciless  to  him.  It  declared  him 
a vagrant  and  a nuisance  unless  he  got  work  and  threatened 
him  with  the  jail  and  the  chain-gang  until  he  did. 

So  he  was  driven  to  the  unpleasant  alternatives  of  starving, 
fighting  the  union  or  becoming  a criminal.  And  his  tribe  was 
increasing.  He  was  becoming  an  army.  And  yet  this  was  the 
man  ux^on  whose  decrease  alone  organized  labor  could  hope  for 
success  along  the  lines  it  was  pursuing.  And  that  was  the  way 
it  was  essaying  to  decrease  him — by  star-s-ing  him  as  a union 
man  or  killing  him  as  a scab.  In  the  face  of  such  blundering 
inconsistencies  and  such  treatment  of  its  own,  the  -v\-onder  was 
that  the  union  sentiment  made  any  progress  at  all.  The  fact 
was  that  organized  labor  had  made  no  progress  in  achieving 
any  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  working  classes.  That 
it  had  grown  in  numerical  strength  was  due  solely  to  the  inso- 
lent and  inhuman  attitude  of  the  capitalistic  employer.  Grown 
overconfident,  he  had  given  full  reign  to  his  selfish  greed  and 
had  literally  chased  the  workers  into  the  unions.  The  growing 


SOME  MISTAKES  OF  OEGAKIZED  LABOE. 


59 


Unity  of  Labor,  aside  from  the  natural  class-sympathy  that  had 
always  existed,  was  really  more  the  mechanical  unity  of  capi- 
talistic pressure  than  a chemical  unity  arising  from  a realiza- 
tion of  the  benefits  of  organization.  But  as  the  atoms  of  op- 
posing elements  can  be  brought  by  pressure  into  such  close 
contact  that  a real  union  will  resuit,  so  with  the  atomic  toilers 
under  the  encroachments  and  oppression  of  the  employer;  they 
were  being  brought  (if  they  had  not  already  been)  into  such 
vital  touch  that  the  unemployed  though  growing  in  numbers, 
were  also  becoming  less  and  less  disposed  to  play  the  part  of 
buffers  to  capital,  preferring  to  starve  and  beg  and  become 
vagrants  rather  than  oppose  the  union  or  take  the  place  of  a 
“brother.”  The  brotherhood  feeling  had  become  strong,  and 
though  organization  brought  THEM  no  practical  relief,  they 
sympathized  with  the  spirit  of  the  unions  and  shared  their 
feeling  and  attitude  towards  their  common  enemy.  Their  com- 
mon enemy  was,  notwithstanding,  more  complacent  and  confi- 
dent and  over-reaching  than  ever.  He  viewed  the  gropings  of  the 
blind  giant  with  no  feelings  of  alarm.  That  the  scales  might 
sometime  drop  from  his  eyes  did  not  disturb  him.  It  was  re- 
garded as  too  remote  a possibility  to  consider  seriously.  That 
a light  might  arise  that  would  pierce  to  his  dormant  power  of 
vision  and  awaken  it,  was  also  improbable.  And  yet  both  the 
improbable  and  the  impossible  were  happening.  The  scales 
were  falling  and  the  light  was  rising. 

Trades  Union  methods;  Trades  Union  objects;  Trades  Un- 
ion interpretations,  limitations  and  applications  of  golden 
truths;  Trades  Union  burrowing  into  the  earth  of  capitalism  in 
its  search  for  industrial  light;  Trades  Union  acceptance  of  the 
system  of  private  control;  Trades  Unionism  as  a way  out  of 
slavery  and  misery  and  degradation;  organization  alone  as  a 
panacea  for  the  wage-earners  wrongs;  failing  belief  in  these 
were  the  falling  scales  whose  presence  had  so  long  blinded 
the  eyes  of  the  laboring  people.  More  and  more  they  had  come 
to  see  that  the  evils  from  which  they  suffered  lay  in  tho 
Industrial  System  that  permitted  and  encouraged  the  predatory 
instincts  of  the  human  animal  instead  of  restricting  and  placing 
checks  upon  him.  More  and  more  they  had  come  to  see  that 
effort  was  fruitless,  that  organization  was  powerless,  that 
union  w'as  unavailing  however  ably  directed  under  the  pre- 
vailing employing  system. 


60 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


The  consciousness  too,  was  growing  upon  them,  that  cap- 
ital so  far  from  fearing  the  unions  or  their  weapons,  was  act- 
ually making  them  its  playthings;  was  corrupting  their  lead- 
ers; creating  dissentions  in  their  ranks  and  actually  forcing 
strikes  and  boycotts  to  bull  and  bear  its  stocks,  to  raise  and 
lower  prices  and  to  exploit  in  various  ways  both  producers  and 
consumers.  But  though  faith  in  unionism,  as  then  under- 
stood and  practiced,  waned  as  their  vision  cleared;  though  they 
saw  that  their  organized  strength  ought  to  be  turned  against 
the  Industrial  System  through  which  their  slavery  had  been 
wrought,  they  would  not  so  direct  it,  notwithstanding  the  al- 
most unbearable  oppression  of  capital,  until  a new  system  had 
been  devised  that  would  stand  the  practical  test  of  an  objec- 
tive demonstration.  They  would  have  no  theories,  no  ideals,  no 
Edenic  plan  adapted  to  the  pre-satanic  innocence  of  human 
nature  under  a primeval  environment;  but  a system  adapted 
to  modern  civilization  with  its  herds  of  men,  its  crowded  cit- 
ies, its  intricate  life,  its  division  of  labor,  its  labor-saving  ma- 
chines and  its  large  enterprises;  a system  adapted  to  the  prac- 
tical understanding,  operation  and  control  of  the  working  peo- 
ple and  to  human  nature  as  substantially  evidenced  in  the  act- 
ions of  men.  And  the  new  system  for  which  they  were  bravely 
and  patiently  waiting,  though  a revolution,  an  appeal  to  arms, 
though  the  blood  and  smoke  of  battle  might  be  necessary  to 
bring  it  fully  about,  must  itself  be  not  a revolution  but  an  evo- 
lution. That  is  to  say,  it  must  be  seen  to  be  a natural 
development  from  the  old,  with  the  useless  and  therefore  bur- 
densome appendages  of  the  latter  dropped  and  its  useful  fea- 
tures preserved  and  adapted  to  the  new  and  growing  powers 
of  the  times.  And  so  anti-anarchistic  were  the  American  peo- 
ple, so  functional  had  become  the  principle  of  self-government 
among  them,  that  though  tempted  almost  beyond  endurance, 
they  would  not  destroy  until  they  could  see  a way  to  rebuild, 
and  the  rebuilding  must  keep  pace  with  the  destruction. 

The  New  Industrial  System  for  which  they  had  so  long  been 
waiting  and  looking  had  at  last  arisen.  The  Industrial  Social- 
ists had  presented  in  the  indnstrial  plan  which  they  had  adopt- 
ed, a method  of  reform  and  reconstruction,  practicable  and 
safe.  And  the  Trades  Union  Army  was  now  preparing  to  ex- 
ert its  organized  strength  in  the  only  display  of  force  neces- 
sary, namely — to  burst  the  bonds  of  technical  legal  right  by 


SOME  MISTAKES  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR. 


61 


which,  tinder  the  sacred  names  of  constitutional  guarantees, 
court  decrees,  legislative  enactments  and  vested  rights,  capital 
had  through  its  corrupted  and  class-influenced  courts  and  con- 
gresses so  skillfully  bound  the  old  industrial  system  to  the  po- 
litical, that  to  unravel  peacefullj^  would  be,  if  not  practically 
impossible,  so  tedious  and  slow  as  to  be  intolerable  to  the  toil- 
ing victims  whom  it  had  reduced  to  a practical,  perpetual 
daily  dependence  upon  it  for  access  to  the  means  of  supporting 
life,  and  before  whom  was  displayed  a practical  system  of  In- 
dustrial Freedom  within  their  grasp  but  for  those  unnatural 
bonds. 

Organized  labor  (thanks  to  the  oppression  of  capital  that 
had  forced  it  into  organizing)  was  now  ready  for  the  revolu- 
tion which  alone  is  ever  justifiable  or  substantially  effective — 
the  revolution  that  is  directed  against  those  artificial  barriers 
which  class,  through  its  manipulation  of  law  and  government, 
has  erected  across  the  path  of  Human  Progress. 

And  yet  the  capitalistic  employer,  idolatrous  of  self,  con- 
temptuous of  his  labor-slaves,  his  man-machines  by  whom  he 
was  supported;  secure  in  the  belief  that  the  bonds  could  never 
be  broken  which  he  had  so  firmly  wound  about  what  in  his 
Christian  Phariseeism  and  superior  power  he  sometimes  smil- 
ingly called  the  “many-headed-monster,”  the  people,  compla- 
cently and  confidently  proceeded  to  the  undreamed  destruc- 
tion that  awaited  him.  He  had  mistaken  the  revolutionary 
pow'er  of  Organized  Labor  to  strike  an  effective  blow  for  free- 
dom. He  had  mistaken  patience  for  submission  and  perplex- 
ity for  impotence. 


62 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY. 


Y7  N marked  contrast  with  the  formal  meetings  of  the  work- 
ing people  in  their  societies  and  unions  and  delegated  as- 
semblies, were  the  gatherings  of  their  controlling  employ- 
ers. The  former  were  characterized  by  a seriousness  that 
was  individual  and  personal,  by  a manifest  feeling  that  they 
were  assembled  for  mutual  self-protection  against  a common 
aggressor  and  by  a potentiality^  of  tragedy  revealed  in  their 
reports  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  and  relief  funds  and  boycotts 
and  arbitrations  and  grievances,  that  was  none  the  less  grave 
because  it  was  common-place.  They  gave  one  the  impression  of 
being  councils  of  war  on  the  part  of  those  sorely  besieged  or 
against  whom  was  going  the  tide  of  battle.  And  that  was  what 
they  really  were. 

The  latter  on  the  contrary  were  simply  business  confer- 
ences among  men  who  knew  what  they  wanted  and  how  fo  go 
about  getting  it.  There  was  no  individual  or  personal  concern 
displayed  or  felt.  If  there  should  be  any  gravity  or  serious- 
ness in  the  situation  which  they  were  met  to  discuss,  it  was 
only  a business  gra%dty  and  seriousness.  It  did  not  affect 
them  in  an  individual  or  physical  way.  The  morrow’s  bread 
and  clothing  and  living  did  not  depend  upon  it.  It  was  simply 
a matter  of  more  or  less  dividends,  more  or  less  plunder,  more 
or  less  power  for  the  corporations  or  trusts  which  they  rep- 
resented. Their  meetings,  though  they  had  their  societies 
and  associations  too,  were  for  the  most  part  informal  and 
often  with  a rich  veneering  of  the  social  and  convivial  and 
luxurious.  Their  gathering  places  were  bank  parlors,  private 
offices  of  corporation  presidents,  back  rooms  of  stock  ex- 
changes and  banqueting  apartments  of  aristocratic  caterers. 
Sometimes  they  met  simply  on  invitation  of  some  of  the  more 
powerful  among  them  to  complete  the  details  of  policies  upon 
which  there  was  already  a partial,  positive  agreement  or  tacit 
understanding.  And  frequently  the  most  powerful  combina- 
tions and  audacious  and  unlawful  conspiracies  were  effected  at 


THE  CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTEY. 


63 


these  most  informal  conferences.  Indeed  it  had  become  the 
favorite  method  of  the  capitalists  of  the  time  to  resort  to  such 
informalities  for  consultation  and  agreement  when  some  partic- 
iilarly  “important”  matter  was  to  be  undertaken.  It  relieved 
them  of  much  of  the  “embarassment”  that  might  arise  from  a 
too  strict  adherence  to  business  forms  in  the  way  of  memo- 
randa of  agreements,  written  contracts  and  other  tangible  ev- 
idence of  various  kinds.  And  besides  they  were  not  needed 
among  men  whose  honor  was  bounded  alone  by  their  self-inter- 
est, especially  when  the  advancement  of  those  interests  was 
the  sole  object  of  such  conferences.  A “gentleman’s  agreement” 
was  all  that  was  necessary.  It  had  been  so,  since  at  least  the 
days  of  Eobin  Hood,  and  the  capitalists  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury would  not  be  the  first  to  break  so  ancient  and  honorable 
a tradition  concerning  the  ethics  of  their  profession. 

It  was  to  one  of  these  most  informal  conferences  that  a 
number  of  the  most  powerful  “industrial  magnates”  of  the 
land  were  gathered  near  the  close  of  the  last  century.  That 
the  great  employers  of  the  country  had  under  consideration 
a plan  of  concerted  action  of  some  kind  inimical  to  organized 
labor  could  not  be  doubted.  But  it  could  not  be  said  that  the 
meeting  of  the  barons  of  wealth  on  this  occasion  was  secret 
in  any  sense  exceist  that  it  was  a private  assembly  of  cor- 
poration i^residents  in  an  unofficial  capacity  in  the  private 
ofbces  of  one  of  their  number  for  the  discussion  of  matters 
pertaining  to  their  common  interests  which  they  did  not  care 
to  make  public.  The  New  York  papers,  for  it  was  in  that  strong- 
hold of  capital  that  they  met.  had  the  usual  account  of  their 
arrival  in  the  city,  but  as  the  reporters  were  told  that  there 
was  nothing  to  give  out,  too  much  respect  was  had  for  their  in- 
fluence to  make  any  further  mention  of  their  movements. 

It  was  the  flower  of  the  capitalistic  system  of  the  private 
and  irresponsible  control  of  industry  that  assembled  in  the 
sumptuous  offices  of  the  manager  of  one  of  the  greatest  rail- 
road systems  on  the  continent.  The  forty  men  who  composed 
the  gathering  represented  the  business  element  of  the  times 
in  the  highest  state  of  development,  at  once  at  its  best  and 
worst.  They  had  the  confident  air  of  conquerors,  of  men  with 
power  and  in  authority  over  their  fellow  men,  and  the  solid, 
substantial  look  which  success  always  assumes.  The  air  was 
not  always  a noble  one,  indeed  among  many  of  them  that  de- 


64 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAI . 


sirable  quality  was  quite  lacking;  but  it  was  always  confident 
and  conquering.  And  the  solid,  substantial  look  was  som^ 
times  rather  beefy  and  bulldoggish,  but  it  was  always  a suc- 
cessful look.  They  showed  in  every  glance  of  the  eye  and  move- 
ment of  the  body  that  they  were  alive  in  every  nerve  and  brain- 
cell of  their  anatomy,  predaciously  alive  that  is,  as  one  would 
perhaps  wish  to  qualify  it  after  a business  interview  with  any 
one  of  them,  for  the  alertness  of  intellect  which  they  undoubt- 
edly exhibited,  whether  in  lineament  or  expression,  in  voice  or 
manner,  was  rather  feline  than  benevolent  or  philanthropic. 
And  yet  there  were  a number  among  them,  indeed  most  of  them 
in  a way,  who  were  noted  for  their  philanthropy,  public  spirit 
and  generosity  as  such  terms  were  understood  and  interpreted 
by  the  civilization  of  the  period  which  these  men  represented. 
But  however  disparagingly  the  fact  might  correctly  be  stated, 
the  fact  remained  that  intellectually  they  were  active,  alert 
and  masterful.  They  had  a broad  and  comprehensive  grasp  of 
all  matters  that  pertained  to  the  business  in  which  they  were 
engaged.  They  read  men  as  a scholar  reads  books — with  a 
glance  of  instant  judgment  that  classified  them  at  once.  Men 
were  their  tools,  their  stock  in  trade,  their  true  capital.  And 
in  that  sentence  lay  the  secret  of  their  power.  Nay,  in  it  lies 
the  secret  of  all  oppressive  industrial  power.  Capital  may  be 
said  in  a general  way  to  be  anything  used  in  the  getting  of 
what  we  desire.  The  capital  of  the  woodman  is  his  axe  and 
the  wood;  that  of  the  farmer  is  his  land  and  agricultural  im- 
plements; the  miner’s  capital  is  ore  beds  and  tools;  the  raPfl 
road  man’s  is  his  road  and  rolling-stock;  the  telegrapher’s  is 
his  lines  and  instruments.  As  long  now  as  the  woodman  him- 
self uses  his  axe,  the  farmer  his  implements,  the  miner  his  tools, 
the  railroader  his  cars  and  the  telegrapher  his  instruments — 
he  is  not,  strange  to  say,  a capitalist,  but  a laborer,  a working- 
man. But  let  the  woodman  turn  over  his  axe  to  another  man 
and  use  him  to  chop  his  wood,  and  likewise  the  farmer,  the 
miner,  the  railroad  man  and  the  telegrapher,  and  each  straight- 
way becomes  a capitalist.  That  is  to  say,  a capitalist  is  a man 
whose  capital  is  other  men.  Of  course,  the  accepted  fiction  is 
that  it  is  the  axe,  the  land,  the  tools,  the  cars  and  the  telegraph 
instruments  in  the  other  men’s  hands  that  he  is  using;  but  the 
labor  of  these  men,  the  men  themselves  are  much  more  his 
real  capital  than  the  material  things  which  he  places  at  their 


THE  CAPTAIHS  OF  INDUSTRY. 


65 


use.  As  men  become  the  users  of  men,  they  become  capitalists. 
And  as  the  eontrol  of  material  capital  had  been  private  and  ir- 
responsible, so  it  had  come  about  that  the  capitalist’s  control 
of  his  human  capital  was  likewise  private  and  irresponsible. 
And  herein  lay  the  viciousness  of  the  employing  system  of  the 
times.  It  was  not  in  interest,  not  in  wages,  not  in  profit  in 
themselves  considered,  but  in  the  private  and  irresponsible  use 
of  men  by  men.  That  constitutes  slavery.  That  constitutes 
despotism.  That  constitutes  oppression  and  has  constituted 
them  among  every  race  and  in  every  age  since  the  beginning 
of  time,  and  to  it  can  be  traced  with  the  certainty  of  a dem- 
onstration the  downfall  and  degradation  of  every  government 
and  people  that  have  written  their  tragic  history  in  the  chron- 
icles of  time.  No  human  system  that  deals  with  humanSj 
whether  political,  social,  industrial  or  ecclesiastical,  can  be 
erected  upon  that  principle  without  resulting  in  misery,  deg- 
radation, slavery  and  oblivion  for  the  people  over  whom  it  ex- 
ercises its  power.  The  history  of  the  world  has  been  but  the 
history  of  the  vain  struggle  of  men  against  the  inevitable  re- 
sult of  such  systems. 

But  the  captains  of  industry,  capturers  of  industry  rather, 
who  were  gathered  in  the  council  chambers  of  their  confrere  to 
devise  a more  efficient  handling  of  their  “capital,”  were  not  in- 
terested in  the  ultimate,  inevitable  results  of  anything  that 
went  beyond  their  business.  They  understood  the  principle, 
however,  perfectly.  They  knew  that  it  was  men  they  were 
using.  Money,  bonds,  stocks,  railroads,  land,  mines,  factories 
— these  were  but  the  outward  show,  the  material  things  upon 
whieh  they  based  their  legal  claims  to  men;  these  were  but  the 
wires;  it  was  the  puppet  slaves  at  the  end  of  them  that  they 
manipulated.  They  understood  that;  and  the  man  who  did  not 
understand  it  and  act  upon  it,  could  never  hope  to  come  into 
their  august  presence  as  one  of  them.  The  simple  innocent  who 
limited  his  conception  of  capital  to  “invested  cost,”  was  brand- 
ed an  “incompetent,”  and  promptly  “submerged;”  and  if  he  did 
not  become  a tramp  and  a vagrant  it  was  because  the  Goddess 
of  Luck  that  presided  at  his  birth,  had  secured  him  an  humble 
place  in  the  captive  train  of  some  industrial  conqueror.  It  was 
only  a man  who  could  take  a railroad,  the  actual,  genuine  in- 
vested cost  of  which  was  fifteen  thousand  dollars  per  mile  and 
capitalize  the  employes  and  patrons  along  the  line  to  the  ex- 


66 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


tent  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  mile,  that  could  ever  become 
a railroad  king  of  those  times.  It  was  only  the  man  who  could 
take  his  coal  mines,  or  his  factories  or  mills  and  combine  them 
into  monopolies  and  trusts  and  hook  his  actual  investment  of 
a million  on  to  fifty  or  a hundred  million  dollars  worth  of  hu- 
man beings  whom  he  capitalized  under  the  name  and  style  of 
stock  and  bonds  and  listed  on  ’change  and  bought  and  sold  and 
bulled  and  beared  into  helpless  slavery;  it  was  only  such  a man 
who  could  ever  become  a baron  or  a prince  or  Napoleon  of 
finance  or  array  himself  in  the  purple  and  power  of  an  indus- 
trial potentate.  And  such  a man  was  each  one  of  the  roj'al 
gentlemen  here  convened.  And  in  such  manner  had  the  mighty 
fortunes  which  they  possessed  been  accumulated;  for  it  was 
only  in  such  manner  that  such  fortunes  could  be  accumulated. 
And  why  should  they  not  possess  them?  They  were  lying 
around  loose,  as  it  were.  The  industrial  system  permitted  them 
to  be  had  for  the  asking;  yea,  for  the  picking  up  without  the' 
asking,  and  why  not  capitalize  the  productive  capacity  of  a 
people  and  privately  control  it  and  pour  its  revenue  into  their 
own  private  coffers?  The  law  allowed  it  and  the  people  sanc- 
tioned it,  and  if  these  men  did  not  take  advantage  of  such  op- 
portunities the  next  man  who  came  along  with  a highly  devel- 
oped bump  of  acquisitiveness  lor  other  people’s  property,  would 
gather  them  in,  and  he  might  be  a bad  man  who  would  not  be 
a patriot  and  philanthropist  and  friend  to  the  people  like  as  they 
were.  It  is  true  that  ever3'  dollar  of  capitalization  beyond 
actual  investment  meant  a daj'’s  labor  confiscated  from  some 
poor  unfortunate  or  mortgaged  upon  another,  and  appropri- 
ated to  the  private  use  of  the  honorable  confiscator  and  mort- 
gagor; and  that  such  confiscation  ran  directly  counter  to  an 
ancient  statute  that  said  “Tho\i  shalt  not  steal,”  troubled  them 
not  at  all.  The  ethical  standard  of  the  times  which  their  ^•icious 
industrial  system  had  necessarilj'  developed  did  not  so  inter- 
pret it,  and  their  consciences  were  unscarred  bj"  the  brutal 
Angle-Saxon  of  the  barbarous  past.  They  were  scrupulously 
honest,  according  to  the  standard  mentioned.  Their  engage- 
ments and  contracts  were  kept  to  the  letter  with  religious 
promptness  and  exactness.  Thej^  guarded  their  honor  as  the 
gambler  his  sporting  reputation.  It  might  be  said,  indeed,  vrith- 
out  disparagement,  that  the  latter’s  code  was  the  one  they  fol- 
lowed. They  would  no  more  transgress  the  business  rules 


THE  CAPTAIXS  OF  INDUSTllY. 


67 


■which  they  had  established,  than  they  would  steal  in  a common, 
plebian  way.  To  filch  a purse  or  to  empty  a pocket  was  to 
their  minds  just  about  the  most  unpardonable  crime  in  the 
calendar.  To  organize  a company  with  a hundred  thousand 
■dollars  capital  and  issue  bonds  and  stocks  for  a million,  was 
the  best  passport  to  their  most  resx^ectful  regard. 

There  are  some  people  who  might  regard  such  mental  and 
moral  attitudes  as  inconsistent,  but  it  could  never  be  discov- 
ered that  they  did.  They  siinx)ly  added  that  much  human  caj)- 
ital  to  their  money  capital;  and  the  dividends  squeezed  from 
patrons  and  employes  justified  them  to  the  “’world”  and  to 
themselves.  They  were  honorable  men  and  just  and  eminently 
respectable.  And  they  were  humane.  If  they  made  merchandise 
of  men  and  women  and  little  children;  if  they  capitalized  the 
wants  and  necessities  of  their  fellow  creatures  and  extracted 
their  princely  revenues  from  the  toil  of  starving  labor  that 
was  sinking  under  the  slavery  to  which  the  extracting  x^ro- 
cess  subjected  it;  if  they  did  anything  that  an  unrefined  per- 
son might  regard  as  barbarous,  it  was  never  otherwise  than 
in  a business  way  and  always  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
rules  of  the  game — that  is,  the  system  under  which  they  op- 
erated. They  had  the  utmost  regard  for  the  proprieties.  If 
a transaction  was  regular  and  in  accord  with  business  customs, 
that  fact  settled  all  other  questions  in  regard  to  it.  No  further 
inquiry  was  necessary.  It  was  held,  indeed,  as  rather  ungen- 
erous or  as  an  evidence  of  mental  crankiness  to  carry  resx^on- 
■sibility  further.  And  as  these  men  represented  the  honesty  and 
honor  and  humanity  of  the  business  world,  that  is,  the  cap- 
italistic world  in  its  most  orthodox  development,  so  they  rep- 
xesented  its  accepted  philosoxihy  in  regard  to  social  and  indus- 
-trial  conditions.  The  simplicity  of  that  philosophy  was  as 
charming  as  its  logic  was  irrefutable.  It  could  be  stated  in 
two  axioms:  “Whatever  is,  is  right,”  and  “the  right,”  (i.e., 

the  status  quo)  “must  be  maintained.”  Fatalism?  Yes.  The 
•doctrine  of  necessary  evil  was  the  logical  conclusion  and  these 
caliphs  of  capital  taught  it  with  the  most  cheerful  serenity 
and  untiring  iteracy.  Poverty  was  a necessary  evil.  Of  course. 
And  if  they  helped  it  along  by  their  business  methods,  why 
those  methods  were  a necessity  of  the  times,  and  if  evil,  there- 
fore, a necessary  evil.  Over-much  wealth  was  an  evil.  Well, 


63 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


yes,  possibly  it  was;  but  it,  too,  could  be  shown  to  be  very 
essary.  Whatever  was  evil  in  society  or  industry,  in  systems  or 
government,  in  business  methods,  in  business  humanity,  in  busi- 
ness morals,  was  a necessary  evil  to  be  borne  with  resignation 
and  fortitude.  And  they  set  an  example  by  bearing  their  share- 
with  great  cheerfulness.  In  fact  so  complete  was  their  resig-^ 
nation  to  prevailing  conditions,  that  they  viewed  any  attempt 
at  change  with  a disfavor  so  distinct  as  to  grow  to  indignation 
as  the  attempt  showed  chances  of  success.  It  was  a reflection 
on  Providence  to  propose  remedies;  it  was  impious  to  repine; 
it  was  anarchy  to  agitate.  The  reformer  -was  either  a degen- 
erate or  a natural;  either  a vicious  man  or  a fool.  Their  phi- 
losophy was  the  apotheosis  of  conservatism,  and  they  -were  its 
high  priests.  They  had  built  the  mighty  super-structure  of 
their  wealth  upon  a mountain  of  massed  humanity.  And  what- 
ever their  press  fulminated  or  their  pulpits  thundered  or  their 
courts  decreed  or  their  legislatures  enacted,  it  meant  but  one 
thing — “keep  quiet  below  there.”  They  represented  therefore, 
the  law  and  order  element.  They  believed  profoundly  in  main- 
taining  law  and  order  “among  the  people,”  and  although  they 
owned  most  of  the  wealth  of  the  country,  they  were  always- 
willing  to  submit  to  any  amount  of  indirect  taxation  to  sup- 
port the  government.  But  whatever  else  they  might  have  been 
— patriots,  philosophers,  philanthropists,  public  spirited  citi- 
zens, above  all  they  w'ere  practical  men.  They  dreamed  no  day- 
dreams, built  no  cloud  castles,  v\-rote  no  Utopias.  They  spec- 
iilated  in  stocks  and  bonds  but  not  in  the  millenium.  They  op- 
erated in  shares,  but  took  none  in  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 
They  worked  reorganization  schemes  for  railroads  and  trusts 
but  none  for  society'  or  government  or  industry.  They  had  no 
sentiment  that  did  not  yield  a per  cent  and  no  ideal  that  did 
not  declare  dividends.  They  measured  reforms  by  their  poten- 
tial revenues  and  the  practical  by  that  which  paid.  They  prided 
themselves  on  taking  men  as  they  found  them,  but  made  no 
reference  as  to  how  they  left  them.  They'  took  men  as  they 
found  them,  not  to  do  good  unto  them,  not  to  make  them  bet- 
ter, but  simply  to  use  them.  The  man  they^  could  not  use  was 
a superfluous  man,  and  it  was  a part  of  the  practical  to  sup- 
press the  superfluous.  Their  standard  of  value  was  the  dollar; 
wealth  was  their  measure  of  success,  and  coin  their  imiversal 
solvent. 


INDIVIDUALISM. 


69 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


INDIVIDUALISM. 

And  these  were  the  men  who  by  their  private  and  irre- 
sponsible control  of  the  immense  wealth  which  they 
had  accumulated,  wielded  a power  more  despotic  than 
the  Caesars.  In  their  hands  they  held  the  destinies 
of  millions  of  their  countrym.en.  “Woe,  rapture,  penury,  wealth, 
throughout  the  vast  realm  of  the  republic,  were  theirs  to  dis- 
pense, to  withhold.”  The  currents  of  trade  flowed  free  through 
the  nation  or  stood  stagnant  in  its  arteries  at  their  command. 
In  their  breath  there  breathed  the  spirit  of  the  pestilence  or 
the  balm  of  spring.  From  their  far-reaching  hands  there  drop- 
ped the  thunderbolt  or  life-sustaining  manna.  At  their  pleas- 
ure the  fires  V)n  a million  hearthstones  burned  brightly,  smould- 
ered sadly  or  were  quenched  entirely.  At  their  pleasure,  homes 
blossomed  or  grew  desolate,  families  rejoiced  together  or  were 
scattered,  and  hearts  beat  high  with  hope  or  sunk  with  de- 
spair. The  miracles  of  Moses  were  discounted  by  these  modern 
magicians  of  wealth.  The  gods  of  old  had  again  come  down 
among  men,  and  at  their  nod,  food,  raiment,  shelter,  were  given 
or  denied.  Their  smile  was  sunshine,  their  frown  a blighting 
shadow  unto  the  multitude  that  depended  upon  their  power. 
This  handful  of  w'eak  mortality,  wdelding  the  power  of  Omnipo- 
tence, had  under  their  direct  control  in  the  labor-employing  in- 
dustries which  they  owned,  more  than  two  millions  of  men, 
actual  laborers  on  the  railroads,  in  the  mines  and  mills  and 
shops  and  factories  which  they  operated.  Two  millions  more 
were  subject  to  control  which  these  men  could  directly  influ- 
ence. Add  to  these  four  million  toilers  the  twelve  million  de- 
pendent upon  them  by  family  ties,  and  we  have  the  vast  number 
of  sixteen  million  human  beings  subject  to  the  direct  influence 
of  these  forty  capitalists.  Nor  was  this  all;  for  the  manipula- 
tion of  this  mighty  industrial  power  could  be  felt  to  the  utter- 
most limits  of  the  republic,  and  affected  every  one  of  its  eighty 
millions  of  population  for  good  or  ill,  as  it  suited  the  caprices 
of  the  manipulators.  And  yet  there  were  those  who  believed 


70 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL 


that  the  industrial  system  which  permitted  the  private  and  ir- 
responsible control  of  such  stupendous  power,  was  a necessary 
system  and  the  only  one  adapted  to  the  development  of  the  in- 
dividual. These  princes  of  the  republic  themselves  firmly  be- 
lieved it.  Nothing-  could  exceed  the  savage  vindictiveness  with 
which  they  and  their  class  always  resented  any  interference 
with  the  private  control  of  “business,”  and  the  power  and  priv- 
ileges which  that  business,  so  controlled,  conferred  upon  them. 
The  system  of  private  control,  the  system  by  which  a half  mil- 
lion individuals  were  chained  to  the  conquering  chariot  wheels 
of  one,  they  declared  to  be  a system  of  individualism,  and  in- 
dividualism was  the  only  system  adapted  to  man.  The  whole 
animal  economy  of  the  universe  was  evidence  of  its  divinity 
and  the  entire  brute  creation  of  earth,  its  exponents.  The  deft 
handler  of  knuckles  and  club  has  alwaj's  been  an  individual- 
ist. The  first  savage  of  primitive  ages  who  conquered  his  neigh- 
bors by  the  might  of  muscle  was  its  earliest  advocate.  And 
his  descendants  wherever  found,  at  the  head  of  ravaging  armies, 
on  thrones  of  despots,  among  the  privileged  caste  and  class, 
have  always  been  his  consistent  followers.  Scratch  the  thin 
veneering  of  so-called  refinement  with  which  the  latter  in  later 
times  had  varnished  themselves,  and  you  found  their  ancestral 
prototypes — the  savage,  with  all  his  basest  qualities  well  pre- 
served. They  who  profited  most  by  their  wholesale  suppres- 
sion of  the  individual  in  fact,  in  theory  became  most  solicitous 
about  him.  Their  individualism  was  the  individualism  of  the 
tiger  and  the  cat  among  beasts,  of  the  spider  among  insects, 
of  the  cannibal  among-  men.  It  was  the  individualism  of  war. 
Of  the  higher  and  nobler  individualism  of  peace,  they  had  no 
adequate  conception.  The  individualism  of  true  civilization,  of 
Christian  manhood,  of  men,  as  social,  gregarious  beings,  they 
preferred  to  ignore  or  to  denounce.  That  there  were  nobler 
insects  than  the  spider,  nobler  beasts  than  the  cat,  nobler  men 
than  the  cannibal,  they  practically  would  never  admit. 

These  levelers  down  of  humanity  declared  that  any  system 
of  leveling  iip  was  a vicious  system.  Sole  ploughers  of  the 
plain,  they  claimed  also  the  right  to  live  on  the  plateau.  En- 
slavers. of  the  individual,  they  drew  a sacred  circle  about  their 
own  individ\:ality.  And  this  right  to  level  do-wn.  to  plough  the 
plain,  to  enslave  individuals,  they  called  individualism;  while 


INDIVIDUALISM. 


71 


the  right  claimed  by  others  to  level  up,  to  live  6>.  the  resulting 
plateau,  to  draw  a circle  about  their  individuality,  they  called 
communism.  And  if  there  was  anything  which  the  communists 
of  wealth,  these  Socialists  of  capital  abhorred,  it  was  any  other 
sort  of  communism  than  their  own.  The  communism  of  indus- 
try, the  Socialism  of  Co-operative  toil,  was  their  especial  nau- 
seate. They  were  loud  and  fierce  in  declaring  that  such  a sys- 
tem would  be  a despotism,  a tyranny,  a slavery  more  desperate 
than  any  the  world  had  ever  seen.  The  despots  of  labor,  the  ty- 
rants of  toil,  the.  masters  of  wage  slaves  were  very  solicitous 
that  there  should  be  no  worse  system  than  their  own  foisted 
upon  the  “people.”  Socialism  will  result  in  a dead  level  of  stag- 
nant mediocrity,  says  these  disinterested  champions  of  self,  the 
capitalists.  “Our  system  develops  the  man.  Look  at  our  magnifi- 
cent proportions.”  “But  it  dwarfs  the  multitude,”  replies  some 
one.  “To  hell  with  the  multitude,”  answers  these  so-called  in- 
dividualists; “we  said  it  develops  the  man.”  “But  the  multitude 
is  composed  of  men,”  persists  the  other.  “Anarchy!  Call  out 
the  troops!”  shout  these  champions  in  a rage  of  terror. 

There  are  those  who  may  regard  this  description  of  the  po- 
sition and  contentions  of  the  upholders  of  the  industrial  sys- 
tem of  itrivate  control  as  unfair,  ironical  and  overdrawn,  but 
it  is  not.  In  fact,  it  falls  far  short  of  the  truth.  It  was  not  only 
contended  that  this  system  which  permitted  these  forty  men  to 
control  sixteen  millions  of  their  fellows,  was  a system  of  indi- 
vidualism, but  that  it  wa’s  the  only  possible,  isractical  kind  of 
individualism.  Nor  were  the  advocates  and  apologists  of  the 
sj'stem  confined  to  its  beneficiaries  alone;  but  it  found  able  and 
brilliant  defenders  among  the  theorists  and  philosophers  of  the 
times.  They  laid  down  the  broad  principle  that  the  individual 
should  be  allowed  full  and  free  opportunities  for  the  devel- 
opment of  all  his  powers.  Block  by  block  they  built  upon  it 
the  logical  propositions  that  powers  can  only  be  developed  by 
effort,  that  effort  requires  incentive  and  that  incentive  de- 
pends upon  desire  and  hope  of  attainment.  By  way  of  complet- 
ing their  forensic  structure,  they  continued — deny  desire,  de- 
stroy hope  of  attainment  and  you  destroy  incentive;  no  incent- 
ive, no  effort;  no  effort,  no  development;  no  development,  no  man. 
The  need  of  mankind,  therefore,  is  a system  that  will  develop 
the  individual;  the  system  of  private  control  developed  the  in- 
dividual (as  they  could  prove  by  pointing  to  some  whom  it  had 


72 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


developed)  and  therefore,  it  is  the  system  which  we  need.  But 
when  confronted  by  the  fact  that  the  few  individuals  which 
their  systems  developed  had  themselves  struck  hope  from  out 
the  hearts  of  millions  and  destroyed  their  opportunities  of 
life,  they  replied  that  it  was  the  fault  of  the  millions  and  not 
of  the  system,  and  fell  back  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  “sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,”  a doctrine  that  has  no  more  relation  to  the 
problem  under  discussion  than  arctic  snows  to  tropic  sun- 
shine. 

Fitness  depends  upon  environment.  The  fit  in  one  zone  are 
the  unfit  in  another.  The  successive  ages  of  the  world  pro- 
duced a succession  of  organic  life  adapted  to  them.  As  the  en- 
vironment changed,  its  creatures  changed.  Survival  proves 
adaptation  to  environment,  but  nothing  more.  It  proves  noth- 
ing as  to  the  desirability  of  the  environment  except  perhaps 
to  the  particular  creatures  adapted  to  it.  A different  environ- 
ment might  prove  the  fitness  of  nobler  beings  to  survive.  And 
the  physical  history  of  the  earth  has  shown  such  to  be  the  case. 
A higher  tyj)e  of  creature  has  appeared  ■with  every  change  of 
environment.  Now,  systems  bear  the  same  relation  to  social 
life  that  climate  does  to  the  physical.  Social  systems  largely 
constitute  the  social  environment  of  man,  just  as  climatic  con- 
ditions largely  create  his  physical  environment.  The  fittest, 
that  is  those  adapted  to  a social  system,  'to  their  social  environ- 
ment, survive  and  thrive  under  it,  just  as  the  animal  best  fitted 
to  his  physical  environment  survives  and  thrives.  If  that  phys- 
ical environment  is  especially  adapted  to  tigers,  then  tigers  sur- 
vive because  they  are  fittest.  If  the  social  environment  is  best 
adapted  to  the  social  cannibal,  then  the  cannibal  is  the  fittest 
and  he  survives.  But  the  fact  that  he  survives,  that  he  is  the 
fittest,  does  not  prove  that  the  environment,  the  social  system 
which  created  him  is  the  fittest  and  best.  In  fact,  he  is  the  best 
evidence  of  its  viciousness  and  unfitness  for  a high  and  noble 
type  of  man.  His  survival,  his  fitness,  is  the  best  argument 
against  the  survival  and  fitness  of  the  environment. 

Nor  could  these  philosophic  defenders  of  so-called  individ- 
ualism elaim  that  environment  is  a fixed  thing  so  far  as  its 
creatures  are  concerned.  For  man,  the  very  creature  about 
whom  they  were  arguing,  is  an  exception  to  that  universal  fact. 
He  is  the  one  creature  that  has  the  power  to  modify  and  change 
his  environment,  physical  as  well  as  social.  Born  amidst  the 


INDIVIDUALISM. 


73 


tropics,  ke  has  conquered  zone  after  zone  until  he  possesses 
the  earth.  And  the  semi-frigid  regions  where  once  he  existed, 
if  at  all,  only  in  a sporadic  way,  hare  now  become  the  habitat 
of  his  most  vigorous  representatives.  If  he  had  power  to 
modify  and  alter  his  physical  environment,  how  much  more 
was  he  master  of  the  social?  Social  and  industrial  systems 
were  his  creations;  and  though  he  in  turn  w'as  subject  to  the 
moulding  influence  of  the  systems  which  he  created,  he  never 
wholly  lost  the  power  of  modifjdng  and  moulding  them.  At 
least  the  instant  he  did  so  marked  the  moment  of  time  when  the 
nation  or  race  to  which  he  belonged  took  up  its  march  to  de- 
generacy, extinction  and  oblivion;  or  rather,  marked  its  ar- 
rival in  those  dark  realms.  Sometimes  those  modifying,  mould- 
ing processes  were  characterized  by  explosions  called  revolu- 
tions; but  more  often  their  existence  could  only  be  detected 
by  those  more  peaceful  and  silent  evolutionary  movements 
called  agitation.  For  agitation  is  but  the  name  given  to  the 
struggle  of  those  unfitted  to  the  prevailing  environment,  to 
mould  that  environment  to  their  needs.  And  as  the  history  of 
the  ages  shows  that  a higher  type  of  creature  is  being  con- 
tinually evolved,  it  is  the  complacent  conclusion  of  the  writer, 
that  the  agitators  are  made  of  finer  clay  than  the  “fit.” 

The  doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the  “fittest”  does  not  there- 
fore prove  their  moral  right  to  exist.  In  fact,  the  character  of 
some  things  is  sufficient  warrant  not  only  for  their  extinction 
but  for  the  extinction  of  the  conditions  that  develop  them. 

So  it  was  with  the  individualism  of  the  times  and  the  in- 
dustrial system  based  upon  it;  the  character  of  the  individuals 
whom  it  produced  was  in  itself  the  highest  justification  for  the 
industrial  extinguishment  of  both  them  and  the  system.  The 
individualism  that  excuses  one  man  in  darkening  the  lives  of 
millions  on  the  ground  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  is  the  in- 
dividualism of  the  animal,  the  individualism  of  force,  the  indi- 
vidualism that  makes  might,  right.  Its  defenders  forget  that 
as  we  leave  the  animal  and  rise  into  the  realms  of  the  human, 
the  doctrine  of  right  is  shifted  to  entirely  different  grounds. 
Abstract  justice  asserts  its  determined  power  upon  all  ques- 
tions. The  moral  and  spiritual  appear.  The  conscience' reigns. 
The  divine  right  of  any  man  or  class  to  aught  but  justice  falls 
dowm  before  it,  and  the  right  of  the  beggar  to  be  weighed  in  the 
same  scales  that  weigh  the  king  or  the  capitalist  is  establi.shed 


74 


THE  CO^SPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


upon  the  earth.  The  individualism  of  the  animal  is  no  more  the 
individualism  of  man  in  society  than  the  freedom  of  the  one 
is  the  freedom  of  the  other.  The  former  is  simply  a unit  upon 
the  earth  separate  and  distinct  from  every  other  unit.  Its  right 
is  perhaps  that  of  might,  for  it  is  a physical  right  and  forms 
the  basis  of  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  The  latter  is 
a unit  of  an  organism,  society,  and  directly  or  immediately  con- 
nected with  every  other  unit.  His  right  is  justice  from  the 
other  units,  to  the  end  that  his  development  maybe  sj'mmetrical 
with  the  rest  of  the  organism;  his  duty  is  justice  to  the  other 
units,  to  the  end  that  their  development  may  be  like  unto  his. 
And  the  unit  that  demands  more  or  performs  less  than  that  is 
a criminal  unit  and  deserves  the  criminal’s  punishment — expul- 
sion to  the  chain-gang.  The  unit  that  claims  and  exercises  op- 
portunities for  development  so  abnormal  as  to  require  the 
dwarfing  of  a multitude  of  other  units  to  effect  it,  is  the  dis- 
eased unit  and  needs  the  physician  or  the  surgeon,  the  re- 
former or  the  revolutionist,  to  reduce  him.  And  yet  the  crim- 
inal and  diseased  units  are  representative  effects  of  the  appli- 
cation of  animal  individualism  to  the  social  and  industrial  or- 
ganism. 

Long  ago  in  the  political  world  such  individualism  had  been 
seen  to  result  in  military  despotisms,  unlimited  monarchies, 
official  tyranny  and  a degraded  people,  and  along  with  the 
“right  of  the  fittest  to  survive”  had  been  sent  into  the  limbo 
of  detected  error  and  mistake.  Eepresentative  and  constitu- 
tional government  succeeded.  A government  that  depended  for 
its  just  powers  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed  was  proposed. 
A system  of  checks  and  restraints  was  established;  and  the 
wielder  of  power  was  made  responsible  to  the  people  con- 
cerned. The  diseased  and  criminal  units  were  thus  “reduced” 
to  their  proper  relation  to  the  political  organism.  Socialism? 
Yes;  but  nobody  called  it  so.  Socialism  was  an  epithet  in  those 
dark  times.  It  was  a term  to  damn  things  with.  And  so  the 
philosophers  of  individualism  by  some  hocus-pocus  of  their 
logic  claimed  the  new  political  system  as  their  own.  But 
though  the  industrial  organism  was  simply  reaching  out  for  the 
like  means  of  discipline  for  its  despotic  units;  though  it  was 
pursuing  the  same  path  towards  responsible  industrial  gov- 
ernment; though  it  was  wrestling  with  the  same  animal  indi- 
vidualism which  the  political  organism  had  crushed,  it  was 


INDIVIDUALISM. 


.5 


met  with  the  frowns  of  philosophers,  the  denunciation  of  stupid 
conservatism  and  the  active  opposition  of  the  entrenched  kings 
and  kaisers,  Czars  and  Caesars  of  capital  who  held  sway  over 
it.  As  the  people,  however,  as  citizens  had  climbed  up  to  po- 
litical freedom  over  similar  obstacles,  so  neither  .could  their 
progress  as  toilers  be  stayed  forever  by  them.  The  industrial 
world  could  no  longer  be  confused  by  the  terminology  of  phi- 
losophers. Schools  and  universities  and  religious  institutions 
were  jarred  to  their  foundations  for  daring  to  teach  these 
mighty  truths;  and  ancient  and  modern  governmental  systems 
alike  were  threatened  with  destruction  for  refusing  to  ac- 
knowledge them.  The  industrial  world  savv'  that  the  “right”  of 
the  fittest  to  survive  was  a physical  and  not  a moral  right;  it 
saw  that  animal  individualism  was  fit  only  for  animals;  it  saw 
that  the  Ogre  of  Socialism  was  simply  organic  individualism 
perfecting  the  symmetry  of  both  the  organism  and  the  individ- 
ual; and  it  saw  that  justice  went  deeper  than  vested,  artificial 
right,  and  rose  higher  than  any  x^hysical  or  intellectual  might. 
And  it  was  determined  that  the  man  who  aspired  to  industrial 
power  should  pass  the  scrutiny  of  his  fellows  and  render  an 
account  of  his  stewardship  according  to  forms  which  they 
would  establish. 

But  the  representatives  of  animal  individualism  who  were 
gathered  together  on  this  occasion  reckoned  ditferentl3%  They 
firmly  believed  that  their  vested  artificial  rights  and  the  vast 
might  of  their  acquisitive  intellectualitj',  gave  them  sacred  war- 
rant for  any  action  they  might  choose  to  undertake.  And  they 
did  not  regard  themselves  as  made  of  the  stuff  that  renders  ac- 
count to  any  power.  Any  proposition  to  that  effect  would  have 
been  looked  upon  as  no  less  than  audacious  blasphemj'.  They 
had  been  so  used  to  wielding  the  power  of  omnipotence  over 
their  plebian  brothers  that  thej'  were  now  ready  to  try  a col- 
lision with  the  car  of  the  creator  himself.  The  juggernaut  of 
evolution  was  to  be  indefinitely  sidetracked.  The  right  of  way 
was  theirs  if  the  power  of  capital  could  secure  it.  And  in  view 
of  the  immense  wealth  which  they  “possessed,”  of  the  national 
monopolies  which  they  “controlled,”  and  the  vast  system  of  in- 
terlocked industries  which  they  “operated”  under  the  form  of 
trusts  and  associated  corporations,  their  boldness  could  not  be 
declared  rash  nor  their  confidence  unfounded.  Their  far-reach- 
ing power  was  undoubtedly  great.  That  they  could  produce 


76 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


mighty  effects  upon  the  nation  and  the  whole  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple could  not  be  disputed.  The  barons  of  feudal  times  wno 
made  and  unmade  kings,  who  established  and  overturned  gov- 
ernments, had  not  more  power  to  effect  nations  and  people  in 
a political  and  military  way  than  had  these  men  in  an  indus- 
trial way.  Nay,  capital  had  become  far  mightier  than  the 
sword  had  ever  been,  and  the  glittering  blade  that  once  had 
flashed  across  the  earth  the  lightnings  of  its  imperial  power 
was  now  but  one  of  the  degraded  tools  of  the  modern  mas- 
ters of  the  world,  the  capitalists. 


THE  CABAL  OF  PEOPEETY. 


77 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 


THE  CABAL  OF  PEOPEETl. 

And  this  was  a gathering  of  capitalists.  The  lowest 
figures  by  which  the  least  of  them  could  be  repre- 
sented was  not  less  than  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars.  And  the  wealth  here  gathered  in  confer- 
ence ranged  from  that  modest  sum  to  three  quarters  of  a bil- 
lion. It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  these  figures  represent 
the  individual  wealth  of  the  persons  referred  to,  though  that 
W'as  great,  averaging  more  than  fifty  millions  apiece  and  ag- 
gregating the  enormous  total  of  two  thousand  millions  as  the 
personal  fortunes  of  forty  men,  which  they  felt  no  embarrass- 
ment in  claiming  to  have  justly  acquired  and  justly  possessed 
The  income  of  one  of  the  members  of  this  group  of  industrial 
kings  according  to  the  report  of  a congressional  investigating 
committee  was  seven  million  dollars  per  annum.  From  the 
same  report  it  is  found  that  the  annual  revenue  of  another  was 
five  millions,  of  another  four  millions  and  of  another  two  mill- 
ions, while  that  of  the  least  of  them  hovered  close  around  the 
million.  But  not  content  with  these  annual  incomes,  vast  be- 
yond the  dream  of  oriental  despots,  each  one  of  this  private 
gathering  of  private  citizens  of  the  republic,  accepted  from 
the  corporation  he  represented,  from  one  hundred  to  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  per  year  as  official  salary.  And 
when  it  is  remembered  that  a dollar  per  day  was  the  average 
earning  of  the  labor  that  produced  the  wealth  which  was 
thus  gathered  annually  from  them  in  such  plethoric  store  for 
the  private  use  of  irresponsible,  private  power;  when  it  is 
remembered  that  three  hundred  dollars  was  the  average  year- 
ly earning  of  labor  that  toiled  ten  hours  per  day  for  three 
hundred  days  in  the  year,  a simple  calculation  will  show  that 
at  that  rate  to  produce  the  income  of  the  mightiest  of  these 
men,  the  labor  of  more  than  twenty-three  thousand  men  was 
annually  required.  The  Individualism  of  Private  Industrial 
■Control  had  then  produced  an  individual  who  in  one  year  ab- 
.sorbed  from  productive  labor  an  amount  exceeding-  the  earn- 


7S 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


ings  of  twenty-three  thousand  faithful,  intelligent  toilers, 
faithfully  and  intelligently  employed;  and  it  had  produced 
forty  individuals  whose  collective  annual  incomes  required 
the  labor  of  more  than  a quarter  of  a million  of  other  individ- 
uals to  produce  it.  The  history  of  the  chattel  slavery  of  the 
world  can  not  furnish  an  instance  of  the  subserviency  of  such 
multitudes  to  the  industrial  power  of  indi\’iduals  as  the  fore- 
going figures  exhibit.  The  nearest  approach  can  De  found  only 
in  the  palmiest  days  of  rottenest  Eome.  The  records  of  the 
times,  to  be  found  in  the  newspapers  and  magazines  show 
other  facts  which  are  in  beautiful  correlation  with  these.  They 
show  that  the  number  of  the  unemployed  needing  work  and 
eagerlj''  seeking  it  but  finding  it  not,  was  conservatively  esti- 
mated to  be  not  less  than  two  millions  of  people;  while  many 
millions  more  were  daily  haunted  by  the  specter  of  poverty 
That  continually  followed  them  at  less  than  a day's  journey  be- 
hind. Millions  of  toiling  men  and  women  and  children  gave  ten 
long  hours  of  labor  for  a j)ittance  so  miserable  as  barely  to 
sustain  physical  life.  But  immense  as  was  the  personal  wealth- 
power  of  these  forty  individuals,  it  paled  into  insignificance  be- 
fore that  of  the  corporations  and  trusts  which  they  represent- 
ed and  officially  controlled.  Here  the  figures  grow  to  the  incred- 
ible and  aiTXsalling  when  we  remember  that  the  itower  for 
which  they  stand  was  exercised  bj^  private  individuals  practi- 
cally responsible  to  no  authority.  The  proportion  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  toil  which  they  extracted  from  the  toiler  was  subject 
to  no  exterior  control.  The  relation  which  the  dividends  they 
declared,  bore  to  the  aetual  capital  legitimately  involved,  could 
not  be  inspected  nor  inquired  into.  Extortion  could  not  be 
XTrevented,  injuries  redressed,  nor  oppression  punished.  The 
caxTitalization  of  the  corporations  here  represented  ran  into 
the  billions  and  they  XTractically  covered  the  wliole  field  of 
national  industry.  The  simple  recital  of  a few  of  the  figures 
and  a few  of  the  industries  affected  ttuII  in  itself  be  sufficient  to 
give  ’ any  one  a comiirehensive  idea  of  the  industrial  situation 
of  the  times  and  the  resulting  condition  of  the  people.  It  must 
first  be  understood  that  the  organizing  spirit  which  became 
characteristic  of  the  movements  of  capital  during  the  last 
half  of  the  century,  had  proceeded  to  such  lengths  that  all  the 
corporations  and  companies  engaged  in  any  great  line  of  in- 
dustry had  by  a series  of  successive  combinations  been  united 


THE  CABAL  OF  PEOPEKTY. 


79 


into  a single  gigantic  central  association  which  practically 
.controlled  that  line  of  industry  throughout  the  nation.  The 
process  was  a simiile  one.  Local,  competing  operators  first  in- 
formally united  to  establish  prices,  fix  wages  and  limit  compe- 
tition generally  within  the  territory  tributary  to  them.  The 
beneficial  elfects  of  the  operators  were  unmistaicable.  The 
informal  union  became  formal,  permanent  and  legal.  The  cap- 
ital of  all  was  joined  together,  the  corporation  formed,  a sin- 
gle large  establishment  created,  and  production  cheapened  but 
not  prices,  neither  were  wages  increased.  The  “operators” 
prospered.  Other  local  companies  in  other  localities  likewise 
hastened  to  combine.  Thus  far  the  movement  had  in  it  noth- 
ing particularly  novel  or  alarming.  Competing  firms  in  near 
neighborhoods  had  frequently  done  so  in  the  past.  But  the  lo- 
cally big  corporation  now  became  more  numerous  and  com- 
mon. It  became  the  thing.  Local  injustice  and  oppression 
were  frequent,  but  was  largely  iJrevented  by  competition  from 
other  localities  and  by  public  opinion.  The  railroad  and  the 
telegraph  had  appeared  however  and  as  these  means  of  rapid 
transportation  and  communication  were  ijerfected  and  extend- 
ed the  idea  of  locality  changed.  It  enlarged.  It  stretched  to  the 
limits  of  the  republic.  To  the  business  man,  the  wide  expanse  of 
the  nation  itself  was  but  a “locality.”  And  as  the  idea  of  the 
“local”  expanded,  the  organizing  power  expanded  with  it. 
The  local  corporations  rapidly  combined  throughout  large 
districts.  The  State  and  National  Trust  sprang  into  existence, 
and  the  subjugation  of  that  industry  to  the  power  of  the 
“operators”  became  complete.  The  results  were  startling  in 
the  extreme.  Competition  was  now'  destroyed,  and  the  pow'er 
to  control  production  and  prices  and  wages  became  by  far  the 
largest  portion  of  the  “capital  stock”  of  the  management.  In- 
deed, as  has  been  already  said,  the  capitalization  of  the  trust 
had  now  no  necessary  reference  to  the  amount  of  money  act- 
ually invested,  but  w'as  limited  solely  to  its  taxing  power  over 
its  patrons  and  laborers,  and  that  taxing  pow'er  wms  limited 
only  bj^  the  necessities  of  the  consumer  and  his  ability  to  pay, 
and  to  the  lowest  living  requirements  of  the  producer.  For  all 
“practical  purposes”  the  producer  and  consumer  had  become 
the  “property”  of  the  trust.  And  to  complete  the  ignominy 
and  humiliation  of  the  situation,  the  organizers  of  these  gi- 
gantic companies  had  taken  this  “property,”  their  fellow  citi- 


80 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


zens  whom  they  had  capitalized  into  “shares”  and  “bonds,” 
and  sold  them  to  aliens  and  foreigners  by  whom  a very  large 
proportion  of  the  “capital”  of  the  country  was  now  owned. 
The  enormous  private  fortunes  just  described  were  largely  ac- 
cumulated by  such  processes.  The  people  had  not  been  slow  to 
see  and  feel  the  growing  ijower  of  these  vast  corporations  over 
them.  They  had  early  become  alarmed  and  through  their  gov- 
ernmental ore. ins  sought  to  stay  the  progrc.ss  of  the  sla’ery 
to  which  they  were  being  reduced;  but  capital  under  the  system 
of  Private  Control,  always  the  nomad  and  pirate  of  the  indus- 
trial world,  became  the  debaucher  of  the  political;  and  by 
finesse  and  cunning,  by  corruption  and  briberj”^  practiced  upon 
party  leaders  and  legislatures  and  courts,  had  succeeded  in 
frustrating  every  attempt  of  the  public  to  regulate  or  control 
it.  Its  retainers  sat  in  every  department  of  government;  its 
paid  lobbjdsts  swarmed  everywhere  that  authority  resided; 
its  corrupters  and  defilers,  its  tacticians  and  strategists,  an 
army  of  brilliant  and  capable  men  but  industrially  without 
conscience  or  principle,  guarded  every  constitutional  avenue 
by  which  the  people  could  lawfully  approach  it.  The  public 
will  was  paralyzed  by  methods  which  these  men  devised  and 
popular  government  was  practically  dead  so  far  as  the  corpo- 
rations and  trusts  were  concerned.  Indeed,  the  people  them- 
selves from  the  first  seemed  to  feel  in  a dim,  unconscious,  in- 
articulate waj^  the  futility  of  attempting  to  control  them.  In 
the  same  nebulous  way,  they  seemed  to  realize  the  inconsis- 
tency of  asserting  the  right  to  “regulate”  business  while 
granting  the  right  of  private  control.  They  saw  too,  that  the 
principle  of  organizing  and  centralizing  productive  power  was 
economically  correct.  They  saw  that  industrial  conditions  not 
only  made  the  trust  sj'stem  of  production  desirable  but  im- 
perative. They  saw  that  it  made  practicable  the  use  of  the 
valuable  but  expensive  labor-saving  machinery  that  was  just 
then  becoming  so  plentiful.  And  they  realized  that  it  made 
possible  an  immense  saving  in  unnecessary  effort,  unnecessary 
competition  and  unnecessary  management.  They  knew  that 
if  its  benefits  could  be  equitably  distributed  among  consumers, 
producers  and  operators  (capital)  that  the  result  would  be 
a substantial  addition  to  the  property  of  all.  But  how  to 
effect  that;  how  to  divorce  the  industrial  system  of  the  trusts 


THE  CABAL  OE  PEOPERTY- 


81 


from  their  exploiting  system;  how,  in  other  words,  to  wrench 
control  of  the  system  from  the  hands  of  its  distorters,  their 
oppressors,  was  the  supreme  question  which  they  had  not 
worked  out;  and  it  remained  unanswered  until  the  Industrial 
Socialists  offered  the  practical  object  lesson  of  their  compre- 
hensive industrial  plan.  But  the  managers  of  the  trust  system 
did  not  content  themselves  with  organizing  single  lines  of  in- 
dustries. They  began  to  reach  out  for  those  that  were  natur- 
ally allied.  If  any  business  closely  affected  another  business, 
the  two  were  at  once  combined  and  conducted  by  a common 
management.  The  Iron  and  Steel  Trust  was  an  example  of 
this.  Its  president  was  in  the  throng  of  the  forty.  He  was  in 
close  consultation  with  the  railway  president  and  the  great 
organizer  of  the  Standard  Oil  and  Mining  monopoly.  Here 
was  represented  a trium-virate  of  industrial  power  whose 
schemes  and  manipulations  threatened  to  destroy  the  indus- 
trial freedom  of  a nation.  Nay,  they  had  already  done  so.  Their 
combinations  had  many  interests  in  common.  The  corpora- 
tion over  which  the  Iron  King  presided  included  not  only  all 
the  iron  companies  and  corporations  of  any  importance  in  the 
country,  operating  practically  all  the  furnaces  and  smelters, 
reduction  works  and  factories  and  shops  that  dealt  in  the  crude 
material,  but  it  also  owned  and  operated  the  mines  them- 
selves. Wherever  valuable  deposits  of  the  mineral  had  been 
developed,  in  the  south,  the  central  west,  the  north  along  the 
lakes  as  well  as  in  the  east,  they  had  been  covered  by  the 
combine  until  the  sources  of  supply  were  held  securely  by  the 
trust.  Then  one  by  one  it  had  taken  a multitude  of  lesser 
trusts  that  had  organized  the  various  lines  of  the  iron  indus- 
try. For  instance,  it  had  absorbed  the  Merchants  Steel  trust 
with  a capital  of  thirty  millions,  the  trust  in  structural  steel, 
in  sheet  steel,  in  steel  rails,  in  Illinois  steel,  with  capital  re- 
spectively of  eight  millions,  three  millions,  seventy  millions 
and  sixty  millions.  It  held  the  stock  of  the  Iron  League  of 
New  York,  with  a capital  of  sixty  million  dollars;  the  stock 
of  the  American  Steel  and  Wire  company  with  Its  capital  of 
ninety  million  dollars  and  controlling  the  wire  industry  of  the 
United  States;  the  American  Steel  and  Iron  comiJany,  of  Phila- 
delphia, of  the  steel  and  iron  trust  of  Missouri  and  the  iron  and 
coal  trust  of  Alabama,  with  capital  of  twenty  million.^,  twen- 
ty-one millions  and  twenty-live  millions  respectively.  It  held 


The  CONSHlHACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


stock  in  various  coal  mines  that  furnished  their  fuel,  in  rrdl- 
■way  companies  and  lake  steamship  lines  that  handled  their 
■goods  either  as  ores  or  finished  products.  And  the  generalis- 
simo of  this  horde  of  business  men,  of  this  aggregation  of 
business  enterprises,  was  the  president  of  the  trust.  The 
■hnormous  salary  which  he  helped  to  vote  himself  was  compen- 
sation for  the  use  of  his  “talents”  in  directing  these,  his  subordi- 
nates into  their  several  lines  of  “work.”  Large  sums  were  an- 
nually placed  at  his  disposal  and  posted  to  the  “expense”  ac- 
tjount  without  question  from  any  source.  A slush  fund  was 
part  of  the  “fixed  charges”  of  every  “respectable”  corporation. 
The  capital  stock  of  the  National  Iron  and  Steel  trust  over 
which  this  man  held  sway  was  ofiicially  given  as  four  hundred 
and  fifty-six  millions  of  dollars. 

The  number  of  men  employed  by  the  various  companies 
belonging  to  the  trust,  included  practically  all  That  were  en- 
gaged in  the  iron  and  steel  producing  industries  throughout 
the  nation,  and  according  to  the  census  of  the  period  could  not 
have  been  less  than  one  million  including  the  thousands  em- 
ployed in  the  allied  coal  mines  and  transportation  companies. 
This  vast  army  of  men  were  absolutely  dependent  upon  the 
trTist.  Outside  its  corporations  they  could  find  no  employment 
at  their  trades  anywhere  because  their  trades  were  controlled 
by  the  trust.  To  quit  work  in  one  establishment  was  but  to 
seek  it  in  another  operated  by  the  same  management.  They 
were  the  property  of  the  combine  in  every  sense  except  a 
chattel  legal  sense.  Their  wages,  their  hours  of  labor,  their 
employment,  their  discharge  were  determined  by  the  trust 
and  continually  subject  to  its  manipulations.  It  is  true  that  a 
very  large  majority  of  its  employes  were  union  men;  and  the 
unions  were  supposed  to  have  a voice  in  all  matters  concern- 
ing its  men  but  the  supposition  was  a delusion.  Organized 
labor  was  the  victim  of  a confidence  game  worked  by  capital. 
If  anything  was  apparently  conceded  to  the  unions,  it  was  be- 
cause the  trust  controlled  the  situation,  and  the  concession 
was  only  apparent,  never  real.  Able  to  control  production,  to 
transfer  orders  from  one  establishment  to  another,  to  shut 
factories  here  and  shops  there,  to  close  these  mines  or  those 
mills,  destroyed  the  eifect  of  any  demands  that  the  union  might 
make.  In  so  far  as  a necessary,  enforced  and  unescapable  in- 
dustrial dependence  constitutes  slavery,  bondage  and  servitude, 


THE  CABAL  OE  PROPERTY.  83 

so  fai'  Were  these  million  laborers  the  slaves,  the  bond-men  and 
the  servants  of  this  handful  of  mortals.  And  only  in  a less  de- 
gree was  the  general  public  itself  a victim.  The  prices  of  the 
trust  were  “fixed”  prices.  They  could  be  advanced  at  will. 
There  was  no  parleying,  no  dickering,  no  bargaining  with  the 
trust.  The  people  paid  its  prices  or  went  without  its  products, 
and  there  was  no  going  without  them,  for  iron  and  steel  were 
necessities.  They  entered  into  the  implements,  tools  and  ma- 
chinery of  every  trade  and  industry.  The  production  of  food, 
shelter  and  clothes  depended  upcvn  them.  The  Iron  King  had 
no  rivals  or  competitors.  He  had  absorbed  or  crushed  themi 
and  he  was  master  of  the  consumers.  And  the  president  of 
the  railway  trust  with  whom  he  was  talking  was  even  more 
powerful  than  himself.  He  too,  was  a king.  His  realm  was- 
the  republic;  his  subjects,  the  people.  His  agents  sat  at  the 
receipt  of  customs  in  every  passenger  and  freight  depot  iru 
the  nation  and  exacted  his  tribute  from  the  people.  They 
stood  at  the  toll-gates  of  traffic  and  no  commodity  went  in  of 
came  out  without  rendering  the  tax  that  he  demanded.  He 
owned  the  highways  of  trade  and  nothing  moved  in  all  the 
land  without  a payment  into*  his  treasury.  National  indus- 
tries, vital  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  people,  languished  un- 
der his  exactions;  proud  cities  bowed  themselves  to  the  dust 
under  his  threat  of  discriminating  rates,  and  imperial  states 
lay  paralyzed  under  the  might  of  his  despotism.  He  was  the 
pivotal  power  among  the  trusts  themselves.  Without  his  aid 
they  could  not  exist.  By  his  system  of  secret  rebates  he  had 
built  them  up,  crushed  their  rivals,  destroyed  competition  and 
established  their  monopolies.  And  many  of  them  had  ac- 
knowledged the  importance  of  his  power  by  attempting  to 
hedge  against  it  as  the  Iron  King  had  done,  through  heavy 
investments  in  the  stocks  or  securities  of  those  transoorta- 
tion  lines  that  most  nearly  affected  them  and  becoming  them- 
selves members  of  the  trust,  thus  in  a measure  identifying 
their  interests.  The  railway  trust  had  been  growing  to  a 
consummation  for  years,  but  it  was  only  recently  that  it  had 
been  perfected  into  national  proportions.  A deliberate  system 
of  wrecking  followed  by  receiverships  and  reorganization 
schemes  had  resulted  in  consolidating  the  ownership  of  the 
principal  lines  east  of  the  Mississippi  into  the  hands  of  a few 


•§4 


■rHE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


American  and  foreign  capitalists  who  at  once  united  their  in- 
terests and  placed  them  under  a single  management.  Possess- 
ing thus  the  keys  to  the  lake  and  sea-coast  cities,  and  virtual- 
ly commanding  the  commerce  of  the  nation,  it  was  an  easy 
matter  to  gather  in  one  after  another  the  great  trunk  lines 
■of  the  trans-Mississippi  regions.  This  had  been  the  work  of 
the  master  organizer  who  now  presided  over  the  most  stupen- 
dous and  far-reaching  transportation  monopoly  the  world 
fever  saw  under  private  ownership  and  management.  He  saw 
tiie  lines  of  his  corporations  girding  the  continent  in  quad- 
ruple belts  from  coast  to  coast  and  extending  from  the  great 
lakes  of  the  north  to  the  capital  of  the  Mexican  repub- 
lic on  the  south.  He  saw  them  dotted  wdth  towns  and  vil- 
lages, traversing  the  great  wheat  regions  of  the  northwest, 
stretching  across  the  vast  cattle  country  of  the  trans-Missouri 
plateau,  climbing  to  the  mines  of  the  Eocky  mountains,  de- 
scending to  the  timber  belts  of  Washington  and  Oregon,  to 
the  citrus  orchards  of  sunny  California,  on  down  to  the  steam- 
ship wharves  of  the  placid  Pacific.  He  saw  them  parting  the 
cotton  fields  of  the  semi-tropic  south,  gridironing  the  rich 
corn  lands  of  the  valley  states  and  piercing  the  populous  east 
by  a hundred  devious  routes  to  the  commerce-covered  harbors 
of  the  Atlantic.  And  with  lustful,  avaricious  eyes  he  saw 
them  gathering  in  concentering  bands  like  the  radiate  arms 
of  the  spider’s  warp,  and  webbing  themselves  about  the  great 
cities  of  the  interior  and  ports  of  every  coast.  'Wherever 
there  were  coal  or  iron  or  precious  ores  to  be  dug  from  The 
mines,  or  grain  or  fruit  or  textiles  gp-own  or  live-stock  raised 
or  lumber  sawn  or  fabrics  made  in  mill  or  factory,  there  stood 
his  long  ungainly  freight  trains  readj'  to  bear  away  the  pro- 
ducts shorn  of  all  profits  to  the  toiling  producer  by  charges 
of  all  the  traffic  w'ould  bear,  and  to  turn  them  over  to  other 
trusts  that  used  them  to  exploit  the  consumer.  The  length 
of  his  combined  roads  was  estimated  to  be  nearly  ninety 
thousand  miles  and  the  pay  rolls  contained  the  names  of 
about  four  hundred  thousand  men  wffiose  industrial  condition 
was  no  less  dependent  than  that  of  the  employes  of  the  iron 
and  steel  trust  already  mentioned.  The  capitalization  of  these 
roads  under  the  system  was  nearly  four  billions  of  dollars, 
upon  which  the  net  earnings  during  the  last  year  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions. 


THE  CABAL  OF  PROPEETY. 


85 


That  so  great  an  industry,  so  public  in  nature,  affecting  neces- 
sarily the  whole  people  and  exercising  such  absolute  sover- 
eign powers,  should  be  permitted  to  rest  in  private  hands  for 
private  gain,  is  more  marvelous  than  the  stories  of  oriental 
Despotism.  The  people  had  remained  singularly  blind  to  the 
danger  of  private  ownership  so  long  that  when  at  last  they 
did  see  it,  they  were  impotent  to  effect  a change.  The  monop- 
oly had  grown  strong  enough  to  emasculate  their  “regulat- 
ing” statutes,  over-ride  their  constitutions,  and  defeat  by 
chicanery  and  corruption  and  fraud  every  effort  at  public  con- 
trol that  recognized  the  right  of  private  ownership.  And  the 
people  had  grown  too  distrustful  of  their  political  system  to 
agree  upon  ownership  by  the  public.' 


86 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTEK  XV. 


THE  TEUSTS. 

Among  the  great  chain  of  trusts  that  stretched  over 
the  land  there  was  probably  none  better  illustrated 
the  viciousness  of  the  principle  of  irresponsible  pri- 
vate control  than  the  National  Eailway  trust  under 
consideration.  Whatever  was  evil  in  it  could  be  charged 
to  that  system  of  management  which  gave  unrestrained  free- 
dom to  the  selfish  greed  of  man,  to  his  dangerous  ambition 
for  power  over  his  fellow  men,  and  to  all  the  resulting  exact- 
ions, cruelties,  corruptions  and  tyrannies  that  flow  from  these 
two  lowest  qualities  of  the  human  heart.  The  evil  power  of 
monopoly  under  private  control  had  been  recognized  and 
fought  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  for  more  than  a thousand 
years.  Laws  against  commercial  and  industrial  combinations 
were  a part  of  their  governmental  traditions.  And  because  of 
the  limitations  of  time  and  distance  resulting  from  the  slow 
means  of  transportation  and  communication,  they  had  found 
no  great  difficulty  in  regulating  the  private  control  of  indus- 
tries with  a few  court  decrees  and  penal  statutes.  But  the 
destruction  of  those  limitations  by  the  railroad  and  telegraph 
was  so  sudden  and  the  growth  of  industries  and  combinations 
consequent  thereto  was  so  rapid,  that  before  the  people  were 
fully  aware  of  it,  their  regulating  machinery  (as  regulation 
had  hitherto  been  understood)  was  inadequate  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  dazed  and  bewildered  they  sank  under  the  indus- 
trial combinations  that  soon  overwhelmed  them.  No  other 
theory  perhaps  could  account  for  the  apparent  submission  o-f 
so  intelligent  a people  as  the  Americans  to  the  glaring  evils 
of  the  private  and  irresponsible  control  of  great  labor-employ- 
ing industries  and  such  gigantic,  natural  and  artificial  monop- 
olies as  those  here  officially  gathered  together. 

The  two  great  trusts  whose  presidents  were  consulting 
so  closely  together,  have  been  mentioned  at  length  because 
typical  of  the  times  and  with  one  or  two  exceptions  more 
powerful  perhaps,  than  any  others  here  represented.  But  all 


THE  TRUSTS. 


87 


were  more  powerful  than  was  consonant  with  the  freedom 
of  the  people  affected  by  them  either  as  laborers  or  patrons. 
One  of  the  most,  perhaps  the  most  important  personages  in 
the  room  was  the  president  of  the  International  Banking 
association.  He  represented  a heavier  capitalization  than 
any  one  present.  English  and  German  money  lords  had  joined 
their  power  to  those  of  America  and  the  combine  controlled 
the  fate  of  nations.  They  were  the  arbiters  of  peace  and 
war  in  the  two  hemispheres.  They  were  more.  Their  fiat  car- 
ried moderate  prosperity  or  abject  poverty  to  millions  in  the 
midst  of  peace  and  plenty.  They  were  the  Gods  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  industrial  atmosphere.  They  rode  on  the  wings 
of  commercial  storms,  launched  the  whirlwinds  of  panics,  and 
spoke  peace  to  the  troubled  waters  of  trade.  They  command- 
ed the  money  of  the  world.  And  under  their  manipulation 
money  had  truly  become  what  it  had  been  so  tritely  defined, 
the  life-blood  of  industry.  They  had  fastened  upon  the  civ- 
ilized world  a money  system  so  astounding  in  its  power  to 
afBiet  sorely  the  industrial  and  cBdl  liberties  of  men  and  na- 
tions, that  Satanic  cunning  must  itself  have  doffed  his  cap 
and  bent  his  knee  before  those  nineteenth  century  masters 
of  the  legerdemain  of  greed,  and  bowed  his  head  in  shame  at 
their  utter  selfishness.  And  yet  withal,  it  was  so  simple  and 
unpretending  that  the  Divine  Intelligence  must  have  blushed 
for  the  dupeability  of  his  creatures  who  became  its  willing 
victims.  By  making  an  insignificant  metal  commodity  money, 
and  forcing  the  vast  commercial  exchanges  of  the  world  to 
a basis  of  barter  for  it,  they  put  themselves  in  the  way  of  con- 
trolling the  possession  of  its  limited  supply  and  thereby  con- 
trolled the  exchanges,  the  commerce,  the  trade,  the  indus- 
tries of  the  earth.  As  the  tides  of  the  ocean  follow  the  move- 
ments of  the  moon,  so  the  tides  of  trade  followed  them.  And 
the  Heart  of  Trade  instead  of  acting  automatically  as  it 
should,  instead  of  expanding  and  contracting  solely  in  response 
to  the  needs  of  industry,  became  simply  as  the  blacksmith’s 
bellows,  responsive  principally  to  outside  manipulation  and 
acting  for  the  most  part  artificially.  But  the  Amer- 
ican president  of  the  Monetary  Bellows  was  very  cheer- 
ful over  it.  He  did  not  doubt  his  ability  to  pump  to  the 
entire  satisfaction  of  his  associates.  He  was  “sleek-headed” 
and  fat  and  evidently  “slept  o’  nights”  as  his  Caesars  would 


88 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OP  CAPITAL. 


have  him  do.  There  was  no  suggestion  in  his  looks  of  the 
“lean  and  hungry  Cassius,”  and  yet  he  was  dangerous.  But 
he  was  jolly  and  seemed  in  a most  complacent  good  humor 
with  himself  and  the  world  as  he  talked  ^\dth  the  preside’it  of 
the  American  Press  Association.  This  latter  gentleman,  more 
like  Cassius  in  physique  than  in  heart,  was  a tall  and  graceful 
gentleman.  The  banker  was  much  interested  In  him.  finan- 
cially as  well  as  otherwise.  His  “reports”  were  much  userl  by 
all  the  capitalists  present.  He,  too,  was  a power  In  the  coun- 
try; but  he  was  well  under  the  control  of  the  trusts.  The 
capitalists  aid  not  fear  him,  but  they  needed  him  and  ma  ’e  a 
g’reat  man  of  him.  It  was  his  province  to  “educate”  ihe  peo- 
ple and  to  see  to  it  that  no  information  reached  them  that 
they  ought  not  to  have.  Reform  was  a pestilence  that  never 
swept  over  his  wires  nor  spread  through  his  papers.  lit,  \sas 
the  Sphinx-like  front  to  the  Conspiracy  of  Silenci  Cnl  pre- 
vented unwholesome  truths  reaching  the  ears  of  the  multi- 
tude. The  American  people  had  read  of  a censorship  of  rhe 
press  in  the  dark  and  tyrannous  despotism  of  the  effete  eas-. 
They  had  heard  that  the  autocratic  Russian  and  the 
brutal  and  bigoted  Turk  and  the  heathen  Chinee  made 
use  of  that  arch  instrument  of  darkness  to  keep  their  sub- 
jects in  happy  ignorance  of  their  degradation  and  slavery; 
but  as  for  themselves  the  freedom  of  the  press  was 
their  proudest  boast.  Nay,  it  had  been,  but  no  longer 
was;  for  that  proud  boast  had  fallen  before  the  vilest 
censorship  ever  maintained,  the  censorship  of  cowardly  venal 
greed  that  had  laid  its  loul  hands  upon  this  palladium  of  pop- 
ular liberty  and  secretly  filched  it  away.  And  that  which  the 
revolutionary  fathers  had  deemed  important  and  sacred 
enough  to  place  among  the  constitutional,  political  rights  of 
the  people,  had  crumbled  at  the  corrupting  touch  of  private 
capital.  The  press  was  no  longer  free;  it  had  become  tlie 
grateful,  fawning  servant  of  its  master — capital.  The  great 
dailies  of  the  large  cities  and  the  weekly  journals  of  widest 
circulation  throughout  the  country  that  controlled  the  news 
agencies  of  the  nation,  had  prostituted  their  high  powers  to 
the  basest  uses  of  the  reigning  plutocracy.  The  brilliant  and 
talented  editorial  and  reportorial  staff  that  conducted  them 
w'ere  but  the  willing  or  unwilling,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
tools  of  the  cunning  heaps  of  wealth  that  owned  them 


THE  TRUSTS. 


89 


and  counted  them  along’  ■with  their  oils  and  stores  and 
rails  and  merchandise  and  other  gross,  material  things  that 
constituted  their  stock  in  trade.  But  it  could  not  be  truly 
said  that  the  press  managers  and  editors  Trere  always 
venal  and  mercenary  in  the  coarser  sense  of  those  terms,  any 
more  than  it  could  be  said  that  the  drunkard  and  gambler  and 
bar-keeper  ■were  in  the  same  sense  advocates  of  the  saloon 
and  all  its  kindred  evils;  for  as  the  latter  have  breathed  the 
foul  atmosphere  of  their  vile  habitats  so  long'  that  it  has  be- 
come a part  of  their  mental  and  moral  nature,  so  had  the 
former,  the  editors  and  managers  of  the  press,  lived  and  moved 
in  the  more  refined  perhaps  but  no  less  vile  and  vicious  at- 
mosphere of  capitalism  until  their  minds  and  hearts  had  be- 
come normal  to  it.  This  atmosphere  of  capitalism,  full  of 
its  disease-spreading  microbes,  had  penetrated  to  the  edi- 
torial rooms  through  the  business  department  of  the  paper. 
Ne’wspapers  required  money  to  run  them.  Expensive  machin- 
ery had  to  be  bought,  large  buildings  rented  or  constructed 
and  big  pay-rolls  permanently  maintained.  The  independent 
but  respectable  days  of  the  modest  but  mighty  hand-press  had 
passed  a’way.  Companies  had  to  be  formed  and  incorporated. 
Stocks  and  bonds  had  to  be  sold  and  •wealthy  and  steady  ad- 
vertisers found.  This  vvas  the  opportunity  of  capital;  and  tha 
freedom  of  the  press  ■was  secretly  and  silentlj^  buried  along- 
side the  free  ballot  and  industrial  manhood.  The  genius  and 
talent  of  the  editor,  that  once  had  been  the  true  capital  of 
the  publishing  office,  now  became  its  least  necessary  append- 
age. And  instead  of  his  establishing  the  paper,  as  in  the 
times  from  Franklin  to  Greeley,  it  now  established  him.  He 
became  a hireling,  a sycophant  paragraphist  and  a paid  writer 
of  advertisements,  extolling  the  virtues  of  his  masters  wares, 
his  schemes  and  plans  for  plundering  the  people  and  governing 
the  nation.  The  street  fakir,  the  patent  medicine  vendors 
and  the  shoe  string  peddlars  were  his  superiors  in  independ- 
ence and  respectability.  The  owners  of  their  goods  at  least 
were  not  standing  somewhere  behind  them  hidden  from  the 
people,  and  pulling  the  wires  that  worked  their  jaws  as  the 
owners  of  the  editor  were.  The  noble  profession  of  journal- 
ism that  once  had  towered  alongside  that  of  the  statesman 
and  philosopher,  became,  under  the  industrial  system  that 
dominated  it,  simply  a department  in  an  advertising  and  news 


90 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


vending  bureau.  And  the  survival  of  the  fittest  had  once  more 
demonstrated  its  unfitness  to  survive.  But  the  president  of  the 
Press  Association  vras  hobnobbing  vpith  greatness  as  he  under- 
stood it,  and  fancied  himself  the  equal  of  the  mighty  banker 
with  whom  he  was  conversing. 

The  president  of  the  Telegraph-Telephone  Trust  was  there. 
He  held  one  of  the  wires  to  which  the  puppet-news-man  dan- 
gled. Indeed,  he  was  an  expert  with  wires  in  a double  sense. 
It  was  his  business  to  work  them  in  both  a literal  and  a figura- 
tive way  and  he  understood  his  business,  particularly  the  lat- 
ter part  of  it.  He  controlled  the  lines  of  communication 
among  the  people.  They  couldn’t  exactly  know  “where  they 
were  at”  without  his  aid,  and  he  charged  them  a good,  round 
price  for  it.  For  three  hundred  years  those  benefactors  of 
the  race,  those  patient  delvers  into  the  mysteries  of  natural 
science,  had  worked  on  the  problem  their  partial  solution  of 
which  had  resulted  in  the  instruments  which  his  monopoly 
controlled.  The  sum  of  those  centuries  of  intellectual  labor 
w’hich  had  been  freely  given  to  the  world,  this  man  claimed 
with  placid  presumption  as  his,  and  privately  proceeded  to 
control  it.  He  had  scattered  a few  thousand  poles  about  over 
the  country,  stretched  a few  tons  of  wire  upon  them,  attached 
a few  thousand  batteries  and  signal  apparatl,  the  actual 
cost  of  the  whole  of  which  did  not  exceed  twenty-five  million 
dollars,  and  lo!  he  was  a king  and  a multi-millionaire,  and 
likewise  possessed  the  earth  in  common,  with  the  people?  No, 
in  common  with  the  other  thirty-nine  colossi  assembled  ■\%'ith 
him.  He  was  undoubtedly  a great  man.  He  had  capitalized 
his  patrons  for  more  than  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
He  exercised  autocratic  power  over  thirty  thousand  knights 
of  the  key,  the  faithful  telegraphers  who  expended  their  lives 
in  his  ill-paid  service.  He  turned  his  telephone  exchanges 
into  sweat-shops  where  delicate  girls  and  women  labored  at 
his  nerve-wrecking  and  health-destroying  switch-boards  for 
a miserable  pittance.  He  robbed  of  employment  men  who 
needed  it,  and  stunted  and  dwarfed  the  prospective  citizen, 
in  order  to  squeeze  dividends  from  child-labor,  his  messenger 
boys.  And  having  established  his  monopoly  over  the  people, 
he  was  so  grateful  for  the  franchises  they  had  given  him  and 
for  the  privilege  of  “private  control”  with  which  they  had 
entrusted  him,  that  he  rewarded  them  by  helping  to  muzzle 


THE  TEUSTS. 


91 


the  press  and  by  joining  the  patriotic  band  of  forty  con- 
spirators who  were  here  assembled.  In  appearance,  h*  was 
tall  and  spare,  like  the  president  of  the  Press.  He  was  far 
past  the  middle  age,  and  his  once  black  hair  and  beard  were 
much  tinged  with  grey.  His  manner  was  sedate  and  dignified 
and  he  had  quite  the  air  of  a clergyman.  One  would  hardly 
suspect  him  of  possessing  the  “business  ability”  with  which 
he  was  credited.  He  was  listening  very  patiently  to  the  con- 
versation of  the  banker  and  the  news-man,  occasionally  join- 
ing with  a word. 

The  broad  and  spacious  rooms,  connected  by  large  sliding 
doors,  now  thrown  back,  were  comfortably  thronged  with 
conferring  magnates.  Besides  those  already  mentioned,  a list 
of  those  present  included  the  presidents  of  the  Anthracite  and 
the  Bituminous  Coal  trusts,  both  of  whom  were  co-investors 
■with  the  Iron  King  and  the  Railway  Despot,  who  respectively 
represented  absolute  capitalizations  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  and  sixty-four  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  number  of 
whose  employes  was  estimated  to  be  over  one  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand;  the  president  of  the  Northwestern  Flour 
trust,  who  through  his  mills,  his  elevators,  his  alliance  with 
the  railroads  and  his  arbitrary  and  swindling  system  of  wheat 
grading,  held  the  farmers  of  the  grain  states  in  his  easy 
grasp  as  well  as  the  consumers  of  his  products;  the  president 
of  the  Cotton  Trust,  who  controlled  that  textile  from  the  com- 
press to  the  finished  fabric;  the  president  of  the  Dressed 
Beef  and  Pork  Trust  performed  the  same  philanthropic  office 
for  the  meat  producers  and  consumers;  the  president  of  the 
Sugar  Trust  who  controlled  that  prime  staple  and  taxed  the 
people  as  his  greed  prompted;  the  president  of  the  American 
Harvester  and  Agricultural  Machinery  trust,  who  sold  his 
goods  cheaper  in  South  America  than  to  the  farmers  about 
the  factory;  the  president  of  the  Builder’s  Supply  trust 
who  had  gathered  in  one  after  the  other  the  monop- 
olies that  controlled  the  manufacture  of  nails,  saws,  bolts 
and  nuts,  hinges,  wood  screws  and  sashes  and  doors; 
his  capital  ran  close  to  the  hundred  millions,  his  employes 
were  thousands,  his  patrons,  the  nation;  the  president  of  the 
Municipal  Light  and  Power  trust,  who  controlled  street  rail- 
ways and  illumination  in  forty  great  cities  and  more  than  one 
hundred  and  seventy  large  to'wns;  the  president  of  the  Amer- 


92 


THE  CONSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


ican  Arms  and  Ammunition  trust,  who  was  expecting  to  be 
an  important  factor  in  suppressing  the  expanding  ideas  of 
labor;  his  trust  manufactured  the  strongest  arguments  used 
by  the  capitalism  of  the  day;  the  president  of  the  Western 
Dam  and  Irrigation  trust;  his  concern  was  the  youngest  of 
any,  and  he  was  modest;  he  rested  content  with  the  posses- 
sion of  the  biggest  half  of  the  republic;  he  was  more  than 
king;  more  than  despot;  more  than  Turk — he  was  God  out 
there.  In  his  domain  prayers  for  “rain”  came  up  to  him  and 
if  accompanied  by  the  cash,  he  might  pro  rate  the  drouth 
among  the  others  who  had  likewise  prostrated  themselves 
before  him.  And  last  but  not  least,  were  the  presidents  of 
the  Standard  Oil  trust  and  the  Fire  and  Life  Insurance 
league,  who  had  distributed  the  colossal  wealth  which  they 
controlled  liberally  among  the  other  trusts  here  represent- 
ed, owning  large  blocks  of  stock  in  most  of  them. 

The  president  of  the  Eailway  trust,  big  and  rotund  of 
body,  massive  and  square  of  face,  eyes,  heavy  lidded,  but  sharp 
and  penetrating,  turned  from  the  Iron  King  with  whom  he 
was  conversing,  and  looking  quickly  at  his  watch  for  a mo- 
ment, rapped  sharply  upon  the  long  table  near  which  he  was 
standing.  The  presidents  of  the  trusts,  who  were  scattered 
about  the  room  in  groups  of  from  two  to  half  a dozen,  some 
seated,  some  standing,  turned  attentively  towards  him  and 
ceased  their  conversation.  And  what  became  known  to  his- 
tory as  the  Cabal  of  the  Trusts  was  in  session. 


THE  EMPLOYEE’S  ARGUMENT. 


93 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE  EMPLOYER'S  ARGUMENT.' 


jHE  dramatic  environment  with  which  conspirators  of 

I old  were  wont  to  surround  their  gatherings  when 
J meeting  to  formulate  their  plots  against  dynasties, 
established  governments  and  official  power,  was 
entirely  lacking  in  this  conference  of  the  Trust  pres- 
idents. There  were  no  secret  chambers  ap>proached  by 
dark  and  winding  passages,  no  sentinel  at  the  door, 
no  pass-word  demanded.  There  was  no  obscure  light 
from  fitful,  gleaming  lamp,  no  masked  and  muffled  figures,  no 
ghastly  tokens  over  wdiich  were  whispered  blood-curdling- 
oaths  of  secrecj^  And  yet  no  conspiracy  of  history  was  ever 
more  i^otent  with  tragedy  than  this.  Eighty  millions  of  peo- 
ple were  to  be  assailed  by  a.  most  ruthless  and  debasing 
power.  A thousand  bloody  riots,  the  lurid  fires  of  revolution, 
perpetual  slavery  for  a mighty  nation  hung  in  the  balanc". 
If  these  men  succeeded  in  their  plans,  the  republic  itself 
w'ould  go  down  in  the  wreck  of  industrial  hope  and  industri.al 
freedom  that  would  follow',  and  popular  government  once 
more  take  its  place  in  those  silent  halls  of  death  whence  but 
four  short  generations  before  it  had  been  resurrected.  But 
there  was  nothing  in  their  manner  or  surroundings  that 
would  indicate  that  they  were  plotters  of  such  far-reaching 
treason  to  their  government  and  people.  The  traitors  of  the 
nineteenth  century  had  improved  upon  the  methods  of  their 
ancient  progenitors.  They  no  longer  skulked  to  midnight  con- 
claves nor  gathered  by  devious  ways  in  dark  and  secret  places, 
with  hearts  standing  still  and  hands  on  sword  at  the  sound 
of  their  own  flaky  footfalls.  They  no  longer  staked  their  lives 
on  the  success  of  their  ventures.  The  most  they  staked  now 
was  money.  Their  methods  were  business  methods.  Their 
meeting  places  were  on  Boards  of  Trade,  in  Stock  Exchanges, 
around  directors  tables  and  in  private  business  offices,  such 
as  are  before  us.  In  fact,  there  was  no  reason  for  them 
to  skulk  or  be  afraid.  What  they  did,  they  did  for  the  most 


94 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


part  lawfully,  at  least  not  criminally.  They  could  not  go  out 
with  a club  and  beat  their  neighbor  into  captivity  and  make 
him  their  personal  slave.  They  could  not  assemble  war-like 
armaments  against  the  people  and  government  and  “vis  et 
armis”  reduce  them  to  subjection;  but  under  the  private  and 
irresponsible  control  of  great  industries  which  the  people  per- 
mitted, they  could  effect  the  same  results,  and  none  knew  it 
better  than  the  men  who  at  the  invitation  of  the  presiding 
President,  gathered  themselves  about  the  long  table  at  which 
he  was  standing,  and  seating  themselves  in  the  heavj",  leather- 
covered  chairs  which  had  been  provided  for  their  convenience, 
were  ready  to  discuss  the  “important  business”  that  brought 
them  together. 

“Gentlemen,”  said  the  Kailway  President,  “it  has  been  said 
that  it  is  an  impossible  thing  for  as  many  as  half  a dozen 
Americans  to  meet  together  without  organizing  a society  or 
company  and  electing  a chairman  and  secretary.  But  I think 
we  can  best  prove  the  rule  in  this  instance  by  being  the  ex- 
ception to  it.  In  fact,  it  is  a rule  that  needs  a somewhat  vig- 
orous pruning.  It  stands  for  a habit  that  has  gone  to  seed 
among  the  people  and  produced  the  very  vicious  result  that 
a goodly  portion  of  them  who  need  to  be  put  to  work  think 
that  if  they  can  organize  something  or  join  some  society  or 
union  or  other,  that  ease  and  plenty  and  nothing  to  do  will 
be  theirs  ever  after.  And  the  commonest  stick  you  meet  be- 
lieves that  he  is  just  about  the  right  timber  for  a manager 
of  the  whole  business,  and  if  he  can’t  boss  the  job  he  goes  on 
a hopeless  hunt  for  one  that  he  can.  That  idea  has  spread  to 
an  incredible  degree  among  our  lower  classes,  among  those 
fitted  by  nature  to  be  onlj"^  what  they  are — hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water  for  those  placed  in  authority  over  them. 
And  rooted  in  a diseased  desire  to  live  without  work,  nour- 
ished by  an  evil  educational  system  that  gives  them  a smatter- 
ing of  knowledge  above  their  station,  and  developed  by  political 
privileges  which  they  are  incompetent  to  exercise,  it  has  cre- 
ated aspirations  too  big  for  their  brains  and  unwarranted  by 
the  amount  of  grey  matter  therein  contained,  and  has  pro- 
duced longings  for  things  that  the  good  of  society  and  gov- 
ernment and  business  requires  us  to  keep  out  of  their  reach. 
To  that  same  diseased  desire  to  live  without  work,  to  the  po- 
litical privileges  which  the  age  presents,  and  to  the  educa- 


THE  EMPLOYEE’S  AEGUMENT. 


95 


tional  system  mentioned  may  be  also  attributed  the  great  part 
of  the  Socialistic  movements  and  tendencies  now-a-days  so 
unhappily  common  among-  that  spawn  of  the  nation,  the  pro- 
letariat, whose  idea  of  Socialism  is  infinite  license,  infinite 
leisure  and  spontaneous  plenty,  free  meals,  free  beds,  and  no 
labor.  And  they  think  all  they  have  to  do  to  bring  about  this 
delectable  state  is  to  organize  something,  or  failing  in  that, 
which  their  lack  of  requisite  intelligence  and  good  faith 
makes  certain,  to  seize  upon  that  which  the  brains  and  energy 
of  some  one  else  has  organized,  and  reap  advantages  not  in- 
tended for  such  as  they  who  have  not  the  strength  of  char- 
acter to  use  them  properly,  even  if  possessed  justly.  If  they 
could  effect  their  object  and  bring  within  their  grasp  the 
organizations  and  institutions  and  powers  which  they  covet, 
they  do  not  seem  to  realize  that  at  the  first  touch  of  their 
ignorant  and  incompetent  hands,  those  coveted  things  would 
crumble  to  nothingness  or  turn  to  bitter  ashes  like  the  fabled 
fruit  of  the  Desert  Sea.  It  is  impossible  for  them  to  under- 
stand that  civilization  itself  with  all  its  grand  and  noble 
achievements  depends  upon  the  possession  of  its  powers  re- 
maining with  those  who  have  been  instrumental  in  evolving 
them  and  who  know  how  to  wueld  them  intelligently.  They 
cannot  believe  it;  and  upon  the  fair  form  of  that  civilization 
therefore  they  dare  to  cast  their  lecherous  eyes  and  to  reach 
out  for  it  in  a lustful,  unreasoning  way  like  the  freckled 
whelp  of  Sycorax  for  the  beautiful  Miranda.  I can  appre- 
hend no  higher  duty  for  those  who  stand  in  positions  of  trust 
and  responsibility  such  as  we  possess,  than  to  use  all  the 
means  wdthin  our  power  to  strike  down  those  covetous  hands, 
to  pluck  out  the  vicious  hope  from  the  hearts  of  the  mis- 
guided creatures  who  possess  it  and  put  them'to  work  at  some- 
thing that  their  untutored  minds  can  comprehend  and  their 
clumsy  hands  perform.  It  is  imperatively  demanded  that  all 
the  civilizing  agencies  which  we  possess,  be  nnited  in  a single 
purpose  and  a common  effort  to  destroy  the  industrial  her- 
esies that  are  spreading  among  our  laboring  classes,  making 
them  idle,  bold  and  impudent;  and  to  inoculate  them  -with 
healthful  and  correct  views  of  their  station  in  life  and  the 
dnties  that  pertain  to  it.  They  are  sadly  in  need  of  education 
along  that  line.  They  are  great  on  organizing;  but  they  have 
yet  to  learn  that  organization  means  organs  which  must  per- 


96 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITxVL. 


form  the  special  functions  for  which  they  are  created.  They 
have  yet  to  learn  that  hands  must  perform  the  work  of  hands, 
that  feet  must  tread  the  dust  and  the  mire,  and  that  the 
essential  and  necessary  but  meaner  members  cannot  aspire 
to  the  functions  of  the  higher  and  nobler.  The  working  classes 
and  the  cranks  and  demagogues  that  incite  to  insubordination 
and  rebellion  at  their  lot,  are  very  fond  of  referring  to  them- 
selves as  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  nation,  and  so  they  are. 
But  in  the  next  breath  perhaps  you  will  hear  them  demanding 
that  Brains  abdicate  forthwith  and  get  off  his  throne  and 
yield  his  functions  up  to  them;  as  though  the  functions  of 
mind  could  ever  be  performed  by  Bone  and  Sinew,  whose  work 
must  ever  be  essentially  and  grossly  physical.  Xot  only  so, 
but  unless  that  'work  is  done  humbly  and  obediently  under 
the  direction  of  some  Master  Mind,  it  will  be  ineffective  and 
without  value.  The  atoms  of  an  organism  go  naturally  where 
they  belong.  The  Grey  matter  cannot  be  kept  out  of  the  brain; 
and  the  Bone  and  Sinew'  and  horny  substances  can  not  be  kept 
in.  If  there  are  any  among  our  laboring  classes  who  belong 
among  the  nerves  or  in  the  cerebellum  or  cerebrum  of  the 
body  politic,  body  industrial  or  body  social,  you  may  be  sure 
that  sooner  or  later  they  will  be  found  there  and  royally 
welcomed;  but  those  that  don’t,  will  not  for  we  must  keep 
them  where  nature  placed  them.  These  wholesome  truths 
must  be  drilled  into  our  people;  and  the  work  cannot  be  com- 
menced too  soon.  It  has  been  neglected  so  long  already  that 
it  is  going  to  require  some  genuine  ‘apostolic’  blows  and 
knocks  to  do  it.  The  ignorant  boast  and  false  assertion  that 
there  are  no  classes  in  this  country  and  should  be  none  has 
given  our  people  a perverted  notion  of  their  individual  impor- 
tance. As  a matter  of  fact,  caste  and  class  have  always  ex- 
isted in  every  country;  and  our  own  democratic  republic  has 
been  and  is  no  exception  to  that  universal  rule.  It  is  true 
that  in  colonial  and  revolutionary  times,  when  the  nation 
was  a mere  collection  of  ganglionic  settlements,  the  classes 
were  likewise  in  a somewhat  embryonic  state;  that  is,  the 
lines  of  demarcation  were  not  so  sharply  defined  as  in  the 
mother  countries.  But  as  we  became  more  populous  and  our 
industries  were  developed  and  diversified  and  organized,  as 
our  power  became  centralized  as  it  must  in  all  complex  organ- 
isms, our  classes  became  more  and  more  differentiated  as  was 


THE  EMPLOYER’S  AEGUMEXT. 


97 


inevitable  and  necessary  and  rig-bt,  until  today  the  ..nes  be- 
tween them  are  as  broad  as  can  anywhere  be  found.  In  the 
wild-ass  days  of  our  early  republic  when  the  conquest  of  the 
frontier  and  the  wilderness  was  the  all-imxDortant  matter, 
our  laboring  people  in  their  semi-isolation  and  unconven- 
tional environment  became  imbued  with  the  idea  that  caste 
was,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  dead.  That  erroneous  idea 
and  doctrine  was  handed  down  to  their  descendants;  it  be- 
came a provincialism,  so  to  sj)eak,  an  Americanism,  if  you 
please.  It  was  promptly  inoculated  into  every  immigrant, 
wise  or  otherwise  who  landed  on  our  shores;  and  together 
with  the  free-ballot,  the  free  school  and  the  free  homestead 
became  the  object  of  the  tenderest  regard  of  every  long-eared 
Bottom  that  enjoyed  privileges  so  beyond  his  station.  It  is 
with  ill  grace  therefore  and  sullen  reluctance  that  the  peo- 
ple yield  to  the  inexorable  law  of  heaven-ordained  order,  the 
wise  application  of  which,  committed  to  our  hands,  is  forcing 
them  to  the  level  to  which  they  belong  and  is  requiring  us  to 
take  from  them  one  by  one  those  privileges  which  it  is  in- 
compatible with  the  public  good  for  them  to  possess.” 

A low  murmur  of  approval  ran  round  the  table  at  this; 
and  the  president  seeing  that  he  was  treading  on  solid 
ground,  set  his  massive  jaws  a little  harder  and  in  the  easy, 
conversational  tone  in  which  he  had  begun,  proceeded: 

“Gentlemen,  however  harsh  and  unfeeling  it  may  sound 
to  our  democratic  ears,  the  plain,  unvarnished  truth  is  that 
‘the  powers  that  be’  in  our  country  must  teach  tlic  lal)oring 
class  their  place  and  make  them  keep  it.  The  growing  evil 
of  the  times  may  be  stated  in  one  single  word — insubordina- 
tion; a word  that  very  accurately  describes  the  chronic  condi- 
tion and  chronic  ailment  of  our  lower  classes.  With  it  conu  s 
that  congenital  horde  of  evil  mental  conditions — class  envy, 
class  jealousy,  class  prejudice,  class  hatred,  and  class  antag- 
onism, which  we  find  agitating  them,  impairing  their  happi- 
ness and  destroying  their  usefulness.  Before  deciding  on 
measures  looking  to  a correction  of  this  state  of  affairs,  it 
may  be  well  for  us  to  cast  about  for  the  causes  that  produc- 
ed it.  Besides  those  already  incidentally  glanced  at,  there  is 
one  which  we  as  business  men  are  especially  competent  to 
recognize  and  of  which  it  is  within  our  province  to  take  ‘ju- 
dicial notice.’  Stated  in  a few  words  it  is — Superabundant 


98 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


Prosperity.  The  cold  fact  is,  the  laboring  classes  of  America, 
have  prospered  beyond  their  mental  and  moral  capacity  to 
use  what  is  paid  into  their  hands.  That  statement  would 
doubtless  be  received  with  open-eyed  astonishment  in  some 
quarters  I know,  and  be  regarded  as  a casus-belli  by  the  so- 
called  reformers;  but  to  us  who  are  in  a position  to  review 
the  situation  intelligently,  it  will  be  accepted  as  a very  com- 
mon-place truth.  It  is  quite  the  fashion  of  course,  to  parade 
the  desperate  poverty  of  the  slums,  the  great  number  of  the 
unemployed  and  the  unequal  fortunes  of  the  rich  and  poor 
and  then  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  labor  is  being  robbed 
of  its  share  by  the  avaricious  capitalists.  Whereas,  we  know 
the  fact  to  be  that  a century  of  high  wages  has  induced  in 
the  people  habits  of  life,  desires  of  living  and  material  long- 
ings and  aspirations  that  are  extravagantly  bej’ond  their 
means  and  stations.  We  know  the  result  has  been,  that  our 
laboring  classes  are  extravagant,  improvident,  shiftless,  high- 
headed and  unwilling  to  perform  the  simple  duties  that  de- 
volve upon  them.  This  is  particularly  true  of  later  genera- 
tions and  especially  applicable  to  those  of  the  present  day- 
To  them,  to  have  to  labor  is  in  itself  a desperate  grievance, 
work  is  a disgrace,  and  contentment  with  their  lot,  a crime- 
They  go  to  their  daily  task  like  quarry  slaves  scourged  to 
their  dungeons,  instead  of  with  that  healthful,  breezy  cheer- 
fulness that  constitutes  true  independence.  They  are  un- 
willing to  start  as  their  fathers  started;  or  to  follow  the 
trades  that  their  fathers  followed;  or  to  live  as  their  fathers 
lived.  Their  w’ages  range  from  four  to  ten  times  in  amount 
and  from  ten  to  twenty  times  in  purchasing  power  above 
what  their  fathers  and  grandfathers  gladly  and  thankfully 
received  and  on  which  they  reared  large  and  healthful  fami- 
lies; and  yet  these  their  sons  and  daughters  are  ground  into 
the  dust  and  robbed  and  reduced  to  serfdom  by  soulless  cap- 
ital! One  hundred  years  ago,  labor  netted  only  thirty  per 
cent  of  the  value  of  its  products;  today  its  share  is  nearly 
sixty  per  cent.  One  hundred  years  ago  the  share  that  went 
to  capital  from  productive  industry  was  two-thirds  greater 
than  that  -which  -went  to  labor;  today  the  share  of  capital  is 
two-thirds  less  than  that  of  labor.  A few  generations  ago 
the  farmer  hauled  his  w’heat  from  twenty  to  sixty  miles  in  a 
crude  wagon  over  unworked  roads,  sold  it  for  thirty-five  cents 


THE  EMPLOYER’S  ARGUMENT. 


99 


per  bushel  and  bought  his  wife  a calico  dress  at  thirty-five 
cents  per  yard.  And  though  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  a 
week  going  and  coming,  yet  he  was  contented  and  she  was 
proud  and  happy.  Just  think  what  a howl  would  go  up  if 
the  farmer  today  had  to  trade  a bushel  of  wmeat  for  a yard 
■of  calico,  to  say  nothing  of  the  trouble  and  expense  of  mar- 
keting. Yet  in  these  times  with  all  his  labor-saving  agricul- 
tural implements,  he  complains  of  sixty-cent  wheat  and  five- 
cent  calico. 

“In  those  good  old  days  to  eat  ‘white  bread’  was  the  syn- 
onym of  luxury;  tea,  cofliee,  sugar  and  store  clothes  were 
dreams  of  wealth.  The  cobbler  came  once  a year  and  the 
shoes  that  he  made  must  last  till  his  coming  again.  The  hand- 
loom  furnished  the  men  with  home-spun  suits  of  butternut 
jeans  and  the  women  with  linsey  dresses,  thick  and  strong. 
The  pine-knot  and  the  rush-light  were  their  astral  lamps. 
Stoves  were  unknown,  but  instead  the  omnivorous  fireplace 
blazed  its  wide-mouthed  welcome  and  wasted  sixty  per  cent 
of  its  heat  up  yawning,  home-made  chimneys.  The  Dutch 
oven  and  the  crane-swmng  pots  and  kettles  were  their  kitchen 
ranges;  deal  boards  their  floors  where  they  had  any,  and 
ax-hewn,  hand-sawn  planks,  their  lumber  for  houses  and  ta- 
bles and  doors.  Glass  was  precious  and  so  were  nails  and 
builders  tools;  and  yet  wages  were  a shilling  a day  or  at  most 
‘two  bits.’  Were  the  people  of  those  times  ground  into  the 
dust?  were  they  oppressed?  were  they  howling  about  Indus- 
trial Slavery?  On  the  contrary,  they  regarded  themselves  as 
the  freest  and  most  independent  people  on  earth.  They  grew 
vigorous  and  strong  on  their  coarse  but  wholesome  fare. 
They  were  content  with  their  homely  but  comfortable  cloth- 
ing and  they  lived  happily  in  their  rude  and  rudely  furnished, 
but  debt-free  homes.  Their  luxuries  were  few;  none,  indeed, 
according  to  labor’s  standard  today;  but  they  had  no  sickly 
yearnings  for  more  than  they  had.  Their  holidays  were  not 
many,  but  they  enjoyed  them.  Their  social  life  was  far 
■sweeter  and  more  healthful,  than  that  of  the  disease-proud 
labor  of  today.  Their  morals  were  purer,  their  hearts  lighter 
and  cleaner,  and  their  minds  nobler.  They  were  indeed  less 
educated  than  our  lower  classes,  but  God  save  the  mark  when 
the  popular  education  of  our  times  is  mentioned,  with  its  sur- 
face gleanings  of  undigested  facts,  its  distorted  ideals  of  la- 


100 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


bor-life,  its  half-truths,  its  ’ologies,  its  sciences,  its  dead  lan- 
guages, its  scientific  training — all  intended  only  for  scholars 
and  gentlemen  and  those  with  the  means  and  leisure  to  pur- 
sue and  understand  them  properly.  If  the  working  people 
of  a century  ago  had  less  of  such  education,  they  at  least 
had  more  common  sense.  And  thej’^  had  that  jewel,  ‘content- 
ment with  their  station’  which  the  education  of  today  is  es- 
pecially designed  to  destroy.  They  were  willing  to  live  their 
lives  as  God  had  cast  them.  They  were  willing  to  live  •svithin 
their  means.  They  were  willing  to  make  the  best  of  their 
opportunities,  and  the  result  was  they  prospered  and  were 
happy.  They  even  saved  a little  from  their  scant  wages, 
hoarded  it  little  by  little,  added  to  it  and  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  many  of  the  mighty  fortunes  of  today.  How  is  it  with 
our  working  people?  Are  they  content  to  be  working  people? 
Verily  not.  Every  stupid  bumpkin  of  them  wants  to  be  a 
gentleman,  and  their  vulg-ar  wives  want  to  be  ladies;  and 
their  sons  and  daughters  fairly  yearn  for  those  high  estates 
which  to  them  mean  nothing  more  than  fine  clothes,  plenty 
of  money  and  nothing  to  do.  Unfit  to  exercise  the  functions 
of  higher  stations,  they  refuse  to  conform  to  their  own;  and 
this  is  true  throughout  the  whole  range  of  industries.  Every 
clod-hopping  son  of  a farmer  who  has  been  kept  at  school 
instead  of  at  work  and  has  been  unfortunate  enough  to  get 
into  a high  school  or  so-called  college,  straightway  wants  to 
be  a lawyer  or  other  professional  man.  Every  cigarrette- 
smoking  son  of  an  artizan  or  mechanic  who  has  likev^fise 
been  educated  out  of  his  class  at  public  expense  instead  of 
being  bound  apprentice  to  some  trade,  wants  to  be  what  he 
can  not  be  and  do  what  he  can  not  do  and  refuses  to  be  or  do- 
anything  else.  Though  incompetent  and  -ofithout  experience, 
they  all  want  to  be  officers  the  da3"  thej^  enlist.  They  scorn 
service  in  the  ranks.  Though  burning  with  an  unhappy  de- 
sire to  be  above  themselves,  to  be  rich  and  live  like  the  rich, 
none  of  them  are  willing  to  make  an  honest,  intelligent,  in- 
dependent, individual  effort  to  effect  it.  If  we  force  them 
down  on  to  their  proper  level  as  we  inevitably  must,  they 
yield  doggedly  and  resentfullj'.  The  trades  and  industries 
today  are  full  of  such  people.  Are  they  willing  to  live  within 
their  means?  Not  so;  though  their  wages  are  ample,  many 


THE  EMPLOYER’S  ARGUMENT. 


101 


times  more  in  both  amount  and  purchasing  power  than  that 
on  which  their  fathers  prospered,  yet  these  would  be  aristo- 
crats find  them  quite  inadequate  to  their  educated  and  grow- 
ing wants.  They  must  liye  and  dress  in  a style  closely  pat- 
terned after  their  betters.  Their  wiTes  must  be  in  the  fash- 
ion which  our  wives  affect.  Bonnets  and  gowns  and  wraps 
must  be  ‘a  la  mode,’  until  it  is  difficult  to  detect  the  differ- 
ence in  dress  between  the  mistress  and  maid,  the  wage-wo- 
man and  her  patroness.  Their  sons  must  dress  and  lire  like 
gentlemen,  and  their  daughters  must  be  ‘fin-de-siecle’  in 
everything.  Their  houses  must  be  of  modern  architecture 
and  carpeted  and  curtained  and  furnished  with  plate-glass 
mirrors  and  ‘suites-des-chambers’  until  their  fathers  and 
grandfathers  would  stand  agape  at  the  luxury  of  their  de- 
scendants. Their  holidays  must  be  passed  up  the  river  or 
down  the  bay  or  on  the  cross  country  excursion.  They  make 
more  in  two  months  than  their  grandfathers  did  in  twelve, 
and  they  save  less  in  twelve  months  than  those  level-headed, 
class-satisfied  old  men  did  in  two.  Would  they  condescend 
to  live  as  those  men  lived?  Well,  hardly.  No  deal  tables,  no 
batten  doors,  no  ungrooved,  unmatched  bare  floors  for  them. 
No  grated  meal,  no  dark  unbolted  flour,  no  cobbled  shoes,  no 
tallow  dips.  The  white  bread  dainty  of  their  fathers  has  be- 
come their  necessity  and  likewise  a hundred  other  luxuries 
of  which  their  ancestors  never  dreamed.  The  honest  Sunday 
jeans  of  the  grandsire  is  the  Sunday  scorn  of  the  grandson, 
and  the  grandmothers  prideful  calico  is  the  granddaughters 
cheapest  dress.  Are  they  prosperous?  Not  if  their  daily  tale 
of  industrial  woe  is  believed.  Nor  would  they  be  if  their 
wages  were  quadrupled.  Though  they  get  flfty  cents  or  a 
dollar  where  their  grandsires  got  but  a shilling  or  ‘two-bits,’ 
though  the  shilling  would  not  buy  a twentieth  part  of  what 
the  dollar  will  buy,  and  though  the  grandsire  prospered.yet 
are  they  going  up  and  down  the  land  bemoaning  the  hardness 
of  their  lot  that  prevents  them  from  being  millionaires. 
■While  they  have  work  their  earnings  are  squandered  in  what 
for  them  is  really  riotous  living;  and  when  the  dark  days 
come  they  have  saved  nothing  and  the  cry  goes  up  that  they 
are  robbed,  ill-used  and  no  better  than  slaves.  They  join  the 
ranks  of  the  unemployed  and  lacking  energy  they  become  pub- 
lic charges.  The  condition  of  the  laboring  people  of  our  country 


102 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPIT^L. 


is  but  a verification  of  the  proverb,  ‘put  a beggar  on  horse- 
back and  he  will  ride  to  the  devil.’  Starting  with  a vigorous 
ancestry,  glad  of  the  privilege  to  work,  content  with  their 
station  in  life,  following  earnestly  and  proudly  their  respec- 
tice  trades  and  occupations,  willing  to  live  as  their  fathers 
had  lived,  to  labor  as  their  fathers  had  labored,  giving  proper 
reverence  and  respect  to  law-s  and  customs  and  social  and  po- 
litical institutions,  American  labor  through  too  abimdant 
prosperity,  too  high  wages,  has  degenerated  Into  a progeny 
that  is  sadly  lacking  in  those  fine  ancestral  qualities.  They  have 
grown  proud  and  conceited.  They  are  ashamed  of  their  sta- 
tion and  that  of  their  fathers.  They  strive  to  obliterate  class 
distinctions.  They  try  to  escape  from  the  trades  and  enter 
the  professions  without  any  ability  whatever  to  do  so.  They 
yearn  for  something  that  wdll  relieve  them  of  the  need  of 
effort.  They  look  to  the  government  as  our  Indian  wards 
look  to  the  Great  Father  at  Washington  and  hope  to  effect 
through  politics  what  can  only  be  done  by  hard  labor.  Having 
wasted  their  opportunities  and  squandered  their  substance 
like  the  prodigal  son  they  think  of  the  flesh-pots  of  those 
who  Jiave  prospered,  and  bold  and  impudent  and  unrepent- 
ant they  purpose  to  return  and  demand  another  portion,  and 
expect  no  less  than  that  the  provident  and  prosperous  shall 
meet  them  afar  off,  put  rings  on  their  Angers  and  robes  on 
their  backs  and  escort  them  with  a brass  band  to  the  feast 
of  the  fatted  calf. 

“Gentlemen,  I believe  in  holding  fast  to  the  lines  of  the 
old  parable.  And  when  they  come,  sajdng,  ‘I  have  sinned 
and  am  unw’orthy,  and  desire  to  be  as  one  of  thy  hired  serv- 
ants,’ then  but  not  till  then  will  it  be  wise  to  consider  the  ar- 
rangements for  the  feast.  In  fact,  until  such  an  honest  dis- 
position is  shown,  I think  it  will  be  the  part  of  wisdom  for  us 
to  provide  quite  another  reception  for  thenn’’ 

Frequent  and  vigorous  signs  of  approval  had  assured  the 
speaker  of  what  he  already  knew,  that  he  was  simply  giving 
voice  to  the  thoughts  and  opinions  of  those  about  him  and 
the  class  they  represented.  Continuing  he  said: 

“Two  other  causes  lie  with  ‘over-prosperity’  at  the  root 
of  present  evil  conditions.  I have  already  incidentally  allud- 
ed to  them  but  they  are  important  enough  to  emphasize  by 
special  mention.  One  is  our  much  lauded  and  really  vicious 


THE  EMPLOYER’S  ARGUMENT. 


103- 


educational  system  whicli  gives  to  the  children  of  all  classes- 
free  of  charge  what  is  really  a gentleman’s  education;  pro- 
ducing or  tending  strongly  to  produce  in  all  who  receive  it 
a desire  for  the  life  and  station  that  naturally  go  with  it.  It 
is  really  a cruelty,  an  unpardonable  injustice  to  rear  a child 
with  hopes,  desires  and  aspirations  that  in  the  nature  of 
things  can  not  be  satisfied.  If  we  give  to  the  children  of  the 
lower  classes,  to  those  who  labor  and  must  labor,  a training 
at  public  expense  that  unfits  them  for  the  industrial  duties 
that  will  devolve  upon  them;  if  at  public  expense,  we  educate 
the  children  of  such  parents  to  a life  beyond  their  station,- 
our  logical  duty  is  to  provide  at  public  expense  a way  for 
them  to  enjoy  such  a life;  and  that  is  what  they  are  clamor- 
ing for  today.  We  can  not  have  free  schools  and  a gentle- 
man’s education  without  such  an  intolerable  result.  One  or 
the  other  must  go,  or  Socialism,  communism  and  anarchy  can 
not  be  stayed. 

“The  third  in  the  trio  of  evil  causes  which  I have  men- 
tioned, is  unrestricted  political  privileges,  universal  popular 
suffrage.  Before  the  resources  of  the  country  were  develop- 
ed, before  the  business  interests  of  the  nation  oecame  so  vast 
and  varied,  as  long  as  the  political  questions  submitted  to 
the  people  were  ‘tweedle  dee  and  tweedle  dum'  popular  suff- 
rage was  a matter  of  no  especial  concern.  It  Is  true  it  was- 
bad  even  then,  developing  as  it  did  among  the  people  that 
omniverous  conceit  and  over-weening  confidence  now  a part 
of  their  character,  concerning  their  right  and  ability  to  de- 
cide the  most  involved  and  delicate  political  and  industrial 
questions.  But  the  evil  effects  are  especially  felt  now  as  the' 
disposition  grows  to  draw  the  great  business  and  financial 
interests  of  the  country  more  and  more  into  the  range  of 
political  action.  More  and  more  the  people  are  evincing  a de- 
sire to  lay  their  hands  in  a political  way  upon  that  which 
otherwise  they  dare  not  touch.  More  and  more  business- 
questions  are  becoming  political  questions.  More  and  more 
the  people  encroach  upon  our  sphere.  Of  course  if  they  can 
get  a business  question  into  politics  they  have  the  legal,  con- 
stitutional right  to  pass  upon  it.  And  their  unlimited  assur-- 
ance  and  conceit  does  not  tend  to  make  them  modest  abou'f 
the  difficulties  at  all.  They  affect  to  settle  off-hand,  matters 
that  puzzle  finer  and  bigger  brains  than  they  -will  develop  in 


THE  COXSPIKACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


!i)l 

a hundred  years.  And  side  by  side  with  the  man  who  has 
given  years  of  study  to  a question  or  has  had  years  of  prac- 
tical experience  in  dealing  with  it,  they  go  to  the  polls 
and  confidently  shove  in  their  ballots  with  his.  They  rush  in 
where  wise,  and  experienced  men  fear  to  tread  i^.en  lightly. 
The  spectacle  of  submitting  great  governmental  and  busi- 
ness policies  every  four  years  to  the  horde  of  strange  crea- 
tures that  crowd  to  the  booths  to  decide  them,  is  enough  to 
make  the  spirit  of  Jonathan  Swift  yearn  for  re-incarnation 
to  damn  it  with  a last  chapter  to  his  Gulliver.  It  is  this  privilege 
Which  has  produced  the  audacious  efironterj’,  not  to  say  in- 
solence, with  which  they  now  propose  to  despoil  the  wealth- 
ow'ners  of  the  country  under  the  guise  of  municipal  and  gov- 
ernmental ownership).  Hot  content  with  their  high  wages, 
not  content  to  enjoy  as  necessities,  such  luxuries  as  the  mon- 
archs  and  nobility  of  a few  centuries  ago  never  conceived  nor 
dreamed,  not  content  with  all  these  things  which  the  genius 
of  Organized  Capital  and  the  constructive  business  brains 
of  the  country  have  developed  and  made  possible,  they  would 
now  reach  out  their  ignorant  hands  for  the  business  organ- 
izations that  produce  them  and  control  them,  hoping  thereby 
to  live  ever  after  in  idleness  and  plenty.  Our  political  system 
has  engendered  this  spirit  of  egotism,assurance  and  false  con- 
fidence among  the  people  that  makes  them  think  themselves 
equal  to  any  undertaking;  and  if  they  can  settle  questions 
of  government,  why  not  all  questions?  that  is  the  way  they 
reason,  and  the  result  is  that  the  laboring  people  actually 
want  to  own  and  run  their  employers  business.  There  are 
several  thousand  men  on  my  railway  lines  who  confidently 
believe  they  are  able  and  ought  to  run  the  whole  business 
collectively.  All  of  you  have  the  same  thing  to  deal  with  in 
your  lines  of  business.  Their  Unions  are  all  built  on  that 
principle; but  happily  we  are  well  able  to  manage  them.  They 
now  turn  to  political  effort  and  that  too  we  have  succeeded 
so  far  in  controlling,  but  at  great  expense,  the  last  two  cam- 
paigns having  cost  us  nearly  forty  millions  of  money. 

“It  is  here  at  this  point  of  our  political  contact  with  the 
masses  that  lies  our  real  danger,  our  only  peril.  Industrially. 
W'e  are  safely  and  surely  their  masters.  We  control  produc- 
tion. We  control  exchange,  its  means  and  medium.  We  con- 
trol the  most  powerful  engines  of  communication  and 


THE  EMPLOYER’S  ARGUIMENT. 


105 


knowledge.  Legally  and  lawfully  we  are  masters  and  man- 
ipulators of  these  vast  economic  and  industrial  powers,  for 
legally  and  lawfnlly  their  ownership  and  operation  are  con- 
ceded to  us  alone. 

“Not  so  with  the  political  powers  of  the  land.  In  the  ex- 
ercise of  them  and  in  their  exercise  alone  do  the  aspiring 
creatures  on  onr  pay-rolls,  the  hay-seed  statesmen  and  the 
bull-whacking  economists  of  the  country  boroughs  find  them- 
selves legally  and  lawfully  our  equals.  Here  alone  at  the 
point  of  political  power  and  control,  do  the  claw-fingered 
‘sans-culottes’  of  industry,  the  baying  wolf-packs  of  labor, 
the  mangy  ‘canaille’  of  repudiation,  reform  and  Socialism,  the 
ignorant  horde  of  economic  barbarians  find  lawful  warrant 
for  their  audacious  purposes  and  hopes. 

“It  is  true  we  have  so  far  been  able  even  at  this  point  to 
control  them  and  beat  them  down  and  back  to  their  places; 
and  we  will  not,  I think,  fail  to  do  so  in  the  future.  But  we 
only  know,  and  know  only  too  well,  the  dubious  and  devious 
ways  and  means  by  which  the  political  power  and  privileges 
of  these  creatures  have  been  shorn  of  all  their,  to  them, 
hoped  for  results.  And  not  always,  I fear,  have  these  way.s 
and  means  been  within  the  spirit  of  the  law;  but  they  have 
been  within  both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  that  higher  law 
— the  law  of  necessity,  which  alone  under  present  political 
conditions  may  be  recognized  as  valid  by  the  controlling 
agencies  of  civilization  represented  by  us. 

“The  ends  must  ever  justify  the  means;  and  measured 
by  that  rule,  the  methods  and  agencies  employed  by  us  in 
accomplishing  by  indirection  what  otherwise  we  could  not 
directly  do,  are  wholly  and  comi^letely  justified.  But  while 
this  is  true  and  while,  as  I have  said,  those  agencies  and  meth- 
ods are  fully  adequate  to  deliver  us  from  the  jaws  of  the 
‘mapy-headed-monster’  that  vv-ould  devour  us  and  the  collos- 
sal  industries  which  we  have  builded  and  upon  which  civiliza- 
tion itself  depends,  yet  it  is  mortifying  to  our  manhood  and 
humiliating  to  the  Genius  of  Management  which  we  profess, 
to  embody  that  we  have  to  confess  to  such  necessity. 

“Shall  -we  the  sure  Masters  of  this  Beast,  industrially  and 
socially  forever  be  compelled  to  fawn  upon  and  cajole  and  buy 
and  intimidate  and  threaten,  in  order  to  be  its  master  polit- 
ically? Aside  from  the  personally  offensive  aspect  of  the  sit- 


106 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAITI'AI. 


nation  as  a mere  business  proposition,  and  as  such  we  are 
here  to  consider  it  today,  as  a mere  business  proposition, 
jcan  we  afford  to  have  our  vast  holdings  threatened  annually, 
biennially  and  quadrennially?  Stocks  and  bonds  are  timid, 
tender  things.  They  shrink  and  tremble  at  shadows,  and  at 
the  Shadow  of  the  Multitude  most  of  all.  We  feel  confident 
and  speak  boldly  of  our  ability  to  control  political  results 
by  our  present  methods;  but  we  can  not  disguise  the  fact  that 
there  is  always  a chance  of  disaster,  of  a rush  of  the  populace, 
of  a stampede  of  the  people  that  we  could  not  control  by 
such  means  alone.  It  is  true  we  are  more  or  less  prepared  for 
such  a contingency,  remote  as  it  may  possibly  be;  for  if  there 
-is  one  thing  upon  which  the  controlling  business  men  of  the 
country  are  determined,  it  is  that  under  no  circumstances 
shall  the  ‘mutable  and  rank-scented  many’  triumph  in  their 
schemes  of  Socialism  or  taste  the  sweets  of  any  possible 
victory. 

“But  even  the  chance  must  be  taken  from  them.  Their 
political  privileges  must  be  curtailed,  directly  or  indirectly, 
I care  not  how;  but  diminished,  they  must  be;  diminished, 
diminished,  diminished  until  practical  elimination  is  reached. 
It  can  be  done.  It  is  not  impossible;  nay,  it  is  easy  to  ac- 
•complish.  Already  a large  majority  among  them  are  disgust- 
ed with  the  results  of  the  barren  \’ictories  which  we  suffer 
now  this  party  and  now  that  to  win.  They  are  aweary  of 
party  triumphs  whose  fruits  are  ever  filched  from  them. 
They  are  without  faith  in  parties  or  leaders,  suspicious  of 
their  own  representatives  and  distrustful  of  each  other.  Even 
the  thoughtful  and  earnest  ones  among  them  are  divided  in 
.counsels;  they  are  ours  already.  The  political  machinery 
as  well  as  the  machinery  of  government  itself,  is  in  our 
hands.  To  effect  our  purpose,  we  have  but  to  decide  on  the 
When  and  the  How. 

“Does  anyone  among  us  fear  a popular  revolution?  Fear 
it  not.  The  people  that  have  submitted  to  industrial  depend- 
ence will  never  care  enough  for  political  power  to  fight  for 
it.  The  revolution  would  prove  but  a National  Eiot,  and  we 
have,  I fancy,  ample  power  to  handle  that.  Indeed,  so  far 
from  fearing  such  a denouement,  I,  for  one,  would  welcome 
-it;  for  in  the  cloud  and  smoke  and  confusion  of  such  a time, 
this  bauble  of  the  people  could  easily  be  made  to  disappear; 


THE  EMPLOYER’S  ARGUMENT. 


107 


and  I am  tired,  and  so  I think  are  we  all,  of  this  eternal  driv- 
ing and  herding  of  the  masses  to  the  polls,  this  never-ending 
dickering  with  their  minions  in  official  power,  this  perpetual 
Banquo-play  with  the  Ghost  of  Popular  Power  that  flits  in 
and  out  at  every  business  office  in  the  land.  It  is  a reflection 
upon  our  capacity  and  ability  as  business  managers  of  the  na- 
tion to  permit  much  longer  a continuance  of  this  condition  of 
afliairs;  and  I believe  it  to  be  the  part  of  wisdom  for  us  to 
seize  the  first,  best  opportunity  that  offers  and  by  a bold 
stroke  of  our  power  end  at  once  this  national  farce  of  universal- 
suffrage,  this  biennial  and  quadrennial  carnival  of  political 
fraud  and  hypocrisy  and  cajolery  and  crime. 

“The  elements  of  the  commercial  and  industrial  world 
over  which  we  preside  will  never  become  settled  and  calm  un- 
til this  is  done.  Our  interests,  our  industries,  our  country, 
our  chnlization  demand  of  us  accelerated  action  along  the 
lines  I have  suggested.  Of  this,  I think,  we  are  all  convinced. 
I have  but  intended  to  generalize  the  situation  as  it  seemed 
to  me  to  present  itself  to  our  collective  view  at  our  last 
meeting.  Since  then  we  have  had  to  consider  but  the  How 
and  the  When.  Upon  these  jioints  we  are  now  gathered  to  delib- 
erate. Before  entering  into  that  matter  however,  it  may  oe 
best  to  ascertain  first  if  we  are  still  of  one  opinion  in  regard 
to  the  situation  as  I have  stated  it  To  that  end  I suggest 
that  expressions  upon  that  particular  are  now  desirable.” 

So,  concluding,  the  mighty  railway  president,  the  unoffi- 
cial chairman  of  the  convocation  assumed  the  seat  immediately 
behind  him,  at  the  head  of  the  table  at  which  he  had  been 
standing,  and  awaited  the  responses  of  his  confreres.  One  by 
one  the  conspiring  potentates  rose  and  wth  more  or  less 
prolixity  or  brevity  gave  assurance  of  their  concurrence  with 
the  sentiments  and  views  which  President  Gorman  of  the 
Railway  Trust  had  just  enumerated.  All  having  in  one  way 
or  another  expressed  their  approbation,  the  ponderous  Gor- 
man speaking  from  his  chair,  this  time  without  rising,  said: 
“Unanimity  is  the  key-note  of  our  power.  That  matter 
being  settled,  I suggest  that  we  hear  from  the  Advisory 
Agent  chosen  at  our  last  meetiHg  to  examine  into  the  Ways 
and  Means  best  adapted  to  the  furtherance  of  our  purposes.” 
Then  for  tne  first  time  the  Mephistopheles  of  the  Cabal 
came  into  prominent  notice. 


108 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 


THE  TIHBE  OF  ATTORXEYS-AT-LAW. 

E arose  and  in  his  rising  seemed  a Pillar  of  State.” 
He  was  a Pillar  of  State,  the  Pillar  of  State  in  fact 
in  the  state  of  Capitaldom,  the  state  of  Monopoly, 
of  Combine,  of  Trust,  of  Corruption,  of  Chicanery, 
of  Craft,  of  Oppression — ^compositely  known  as  the  Indus- 
trial and  Governmental  State  of  America. 

Suave,  polished,  plausible,  refined,  an  Apollo  in  appear- 
ance, a Chesterfield  in  manners,  a Machiavel  In  principles,  a 
scholar,  a courtier,  a man-of-the-world,  he  was  a fit 
and  perfect  type  of  the  tribe  which  he  represented; 
a tribe,  which  in  its  utter  selfishness,  its  ability,  its  acute- 
ness, its  subtlety,  its  speciousness,  its  wil3-ness,  its  in- 
siduous  and  tenuous  cunning  and  its  apparent  respectability, 
has  furnished  to  the  world  the  only  true  characteristics  of 
the  onlj^  genuine  Devil  of  modern  times — the  Tribe  of  Attor- 
neys-at-Law. 

•Law^'er-politicians  and  lawyer-statesmen;  a tribe  by  pro- 
fession fee-takers,  bribe-solicitors,  mercenaries  and  ‘soldiers- 
of-fortune’  whenever  and  wherever  in  societj’  or  government 
they  have  appeared;  the  Hessians  of  society,  selling  their 
sword  for  money  to  the  highest  bidder  in  anj'  cause;  a tribe 
alwaj's  and  everj'where  sj'cophants  of  power,  parasites  of 
class,  leeches  of  wealth,  alvvaj's  and  everj'where  tools  of  des- 
pots and  demagogues  among  the  people  and  alwaj's  for  a price; 
espousing  a “corde,”  never  a cause,  never  a principle,  never  a 
truth;  but  alwaj's  their  own  fortune  and  aggrandizement  as 
represented  in  that  of  a client,  whether  the  latter  be  a man,  a 
corporation,  a partj%  or  a power  to  which  thej'  have  attached 
themselves  for  that  single  purpose.  A tribe  that  has  no  con- 
victions, no  principles  apart  from  a client,  and  no  client  that 
does  not  pay.  A tribe  whose  invulnerable  armor  Is  the  “ethics 
of  the  profession;”  whose  escutcheon  is  escalloped  with 
thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and  above  whose  bar-sinister  is  em- 
blazoned its  significant  and  only  motto,  “For  Sale.” 


THE  TRIBE  OF  ATTOENEYS-AT-LAW. 


109 


Sworn  upholders  of  the  Law,  they  have  been  its  arch  be- 
trayers; sworn  ministers  of  Justice,  they  have  been  its  dead- 
liest poisoners;  sworn  officers  of  the  Court,  they  have  been 
its  mockers  and  befoulers;  and  whether  on  the  bench,  at  the 
bar,  in  jsarty  councils,  at  the  legislator’s  desk,  in  the  execu- 
tive chair  or  around  the  cabinet  table — the  ‘‘retainer”  has 
ever  been  the  only  talisman  to  which  they  acknowledged  sub- 
jection. Their  ideal  brain  is  the  sx^ider’s  spinneret;  their 
ideal  heart,  the  snake’s;  their  ideal  client,  the  pocket-book; 
their  ideal  faith,  Satanic;  and  yet  to  such  brains  and  hearts 
and  faiths,  and  client-seeKers,  have  the  destinies  of  our  peo- 
ple been  almost  wholly  entrusted.  Is  it  any  wonder  there- 
fore, that  our  courts  are  mazes  of  technicalities,  our  common 
law  an  “equivoque”  like  the  Delphic  Oracle,  and  our  public 
bodies,  hot-beds  of  corruption  and  faithlessness?  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  the  record  of  history  uniformly  shows  that  the 
rise  of  this  potent,  dangerous  and  contemptible  tribe  into 
prominence  and  power,  has  ever  been  accomxianied  by  nation- 
al degradation  and  the  basest  betrayal  of  the  x^eople’s  liber- 
ties and  rights? 

It  is  a significant  fact  worthy  to  note  in  this  connection, 
that  the  famous  and  infamous  Praetorian  Guards  that  finally 
possessed  themselves  of  the  crown  of  the  Caesars  and  hawked 
it  about  to  the  highest  bidder,  selling  it  and  retaking  it  to 
sell  again,  derive  their  name  from  that  of  the  judicial  officer 
of  whose  court  decrees  they  were  at  first  executors. 

It  is  a fundamental  principle  which  every  people  who 
would  be  free  and  remain  so,  would  do  well  to  recognize — 
that  the  paid-advocate  by  occupation,  the  hired-pleader  by 
nailing’,  the  side-taker  for  money,  the  man  w’hose  profession 
it  is  to  demand  pay  before  espousing-  a cause,  to  espouse  a 
cause  only  upon  receiving  pay  therefor,  is  unfit  to  be  trusted 
in  any  capacity  other  than  professional;  and  even  there,  it 
will  be  found  that  the  best  interests  of  society  and  govern- 
ment imperatively  demand  his  suppression;  for  the  “code  of 
ethics”  to  which  he  subscribes,  breeds  in  him  a moral  lep- 
rousy  that  infects  everything  with  which  he  comes  in  con- 
tact— courts,  constabulary,  legislation,  politics,  the  people 
themselves.  So  long  therefore  as  this  Drummer  whose  wares 
are  his  wits,  is  commissioned  or  permitted  to  ply  his  in- 
iquitous vocation,  and,  O incredible!  entrusted  with  place  and 


no 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


official  power,  so  long  will  the  body  politic  remain  diseased 
and  impure,  as  he  is  diseased  and  impure.  And  yet  to  this  vital 
truth  the  public  is  and  has  ever  been  practically  blind. 

The  lawyer-politician,  the  lawyer-statesman,  the  attorney- 
at-law,  pervades  every  department  of  public  affairs.  All  our 
judges  and  nine-tenths  of  our  legislators  and  state  executive.s. 
and  twenty-two  out  of  twenty-four  presidents  have  belonged 
to  this  order  of  professional  Pecksniffs.  From  this  same  class 
have  come  a still  larger  percentage  of  those  carrion-birds  of 
society,  the  professional  politicians  and  the  professional  lob- 
byists. None  have  been  so  honored  and  trusted  by  the  people 
as  this  Gentleman  of  the  Law,  this  suave  Judas  who  has  uni- 
formly and  promptly  and  characteristically  betraj^ed  them.. 
Ours  has  been  and  is  a government  of  the  lawyers,  by  the  law- 
yers and  for — the  lawyers?  No.  True  to  the  parasitism  of 
their  professional  nature,  they  have  made  it  a government  for 
the  clients  who  own  them;  and  unless  the  people  awake  from 
their  blindness  it  will  continue  to  be  such  a government,  until 
the  Reign  of  the  Lawyer  is  succeeded  as  it  always  has  been  in 
the  past,  by  the  open  Reign  of  the  Client  himself;  for  loyal  to 
his  profession  as  an  attorney,  a retainer  to  the  last,  having 
always  wielded  his  powers  and  his  wits  for  the  pay  of  a 
master,  he  meekly  at  the  bidding  of  his  lord,  laj"S  down  the 
fruit  at  his  feet. 

This  the  learned  and  courtly  Counsel  of  the  Cabal  was  now 
proceeding  to  do.  As  we  have  intimated,  he  was  a perfect 
pattern  of  the  dignified,  the  elegant  and  the  respectable.  His 
— “a  front  like  Jove’s,  eyes  like  Mars  to  threaten  and  com- 
mand;” and  “deep  graven  on  his  brow  Deliberation  sat  and 
Public  Care.”  This,  the  outside  seeming;  within,  unconscious 
to  himself,  because  justified  by  custom  and  precedent  and  the 
established  Order  of  Things — the  damning  spirit  of  his  pro- 
fession, prompting  him  to  minister  to  all  the  evils  of  our  false 
civilization  and  the  false  industrialism  by  which  it  is  alrnost 
wholly  supported. 

Oh!  what  talents  are  suborned  to  the  vindoing  of  man- 
kind by  the  false  systems  of  society  that  hold  us  in  their  de- 
stroying grasp;  talents  that  else  would  straightway  lead  the 
miserable  multitvide  out  of  the  mire  and  degradation  in  which 
it  is  now  so  pitifully  groping.  But  not  so  are  the  refulgent 
plains  of  Universal  Brotherhood  to  be  reached,  though  reached’ 


THE  TRIBE  OF  ATTOENEYS-AT-LAW. 


131 


at  last  they  -will  be.  The  toiling,  yearning  millions  may  only 
“rise  on  stepping-stones  of  their  dead  selves  to  better  things;” 
on  stepping-stones  of  the  toiling,  yearning  millions,  dead  and 
■dying  who  precede  them.  Ay,  so  be  it.  If  only  that  were  all, 
how  cheerfully  w'ould  the  lowly  ones  of  the  earth  go  forward 
to  their  martyrdom  and  yield  themselves  living  or  dead  to  the 
upward  mounting  of  their  children  and  their  children’s  chil- 
dren in  never-ending  procession  as  they  teem  forth  out  of 
the  eternal  future  through  the  eternal  present  into  the  ever- 
lasting past;  that  were  happiness.  But  to  go  forward  only 
to  fill  the  crevasses  prepared  by  Class  and  Power;  only  to  fill 
the  ditches  dug  by  the  selfish  Few;  only  to  fill  the  “sunken 
roads”  washed  by  Privilege  and  Precedent  and  False  System 
for  their  living  grave;  and  to  see  their  children  and  children’s 
children  in  endless  train,  driven,  crowding  after  them  into  the 
same  yawning  pit-falls,  and  to  feel  and  know  that  the  awful 
sacrifice  is  needless  but  for  these  artificial  chasms,  though 
inevitable  because  they  must  be  filled  before  the  pressing 
myriads  of  the  future  can  pass  on;  this  is  to  dash  the  Im- 
mortal joy  of  martyrdom  with  unbearable  bitterness. 

Wash  deeper  thy  “sunken  roads,”  O Privilege!  dig  deeper 
thy  ditches,  O selfish  Few!  broaden  thy  yawning  crevasses, 
O Class  and  Power!  plant  thou  still  mightier  batteries  beyond 
them,  over  against  the  onward-marching  multitude  and  sweep 
them  like  grass  before  the  scythe!  strain  and  crack  thy  wits. 
O thou  designer  of  Ways  and  Means!  but  for  all  that,  thou  art 
doomed.  Thou  canst  not  dig  thy  pitfalls  deep  enough,  O self! 
O Privilege!  O Class  and  Power!  or  fast  enough  or  broad 
enough  to  stay  but  for  a moment  the  onward  sweep  of  the 
thronging  millions  of  the  Sons  of  Toil  who  are  hearing  down 
upon  you.  Though  they  must  pass  over  on  the  quivering 
mass  of  their  fallen  and  trampled  fellows,  again  and  again  they 
reach  you,  they  press  upon  you  and  at  last  will  overwhelm 
you,  like  the  mighty  waters  of  an  everlasting  flood.  Destiny 
leads  them,  hovers  ’round  about  them  and  overshadows  them 
unto  final  triumph.  For  destiny  means  God,  and  God  means 
The  Good,  and  The  Good  means  thy  eternal  defeat.  It  means 
no  bottomless  pits  on  earth  for  the  people;  no  “cul-de-sacs” 
for  the  human  race;  no  Waterloos  for  Jnstice.  It  means 
Universal  Brotherhood,  Triumphant  Humanity,  the  glory  of 
the  Reign  of  Right. 


ijfi  THE  CONSPIEACY  OP  CAPITAL 

And  yet  it  is  this  against  which  thou  raisest  thy  puny 
arm,  O miserable  Self!  thy  childish  conventionalities,  0 con- 
temiJtible  Class!  thy  bloody  standard,  O blinded  Power! 
Against  thy  brothers,  thy  humanity,  thy  destiny,  thy  God. 
Foredoomed  to  defeat,  thy  very  ^^.ctories,  thy  surest  destruc- 
tion. And  yet  once  again  in  spite  of  the  awful  warnings  of 
the  past,  its  charnel-houses  where  the  skulls  and  bones  and 
dust  of  Class  and  Power  lie  mingled  ever  with  those  of  the 
people  whom  they  would  enslave;  in  spite  of  Its  wrecks  of 
wealth-glutted  empires,  its  blackened  ruins  w'rought  by  the 
lurid  fires  of  internecine  warfare,  with  the  dismantled  palace 
ever  side  by  side  with  the  smoking  cottage;  in  spite  of  its 
ghastly  relics  of  popular  revolution  and  national  reigns  of 
terror,  where  bloody  crowns  and  coats  of  arms  and  mailed 
hands  are  seen  in  the  awful  death-clutch  of  those  despised 
and  oppressed  but  unconquerable  ones — the  People;  and  yet 
once  again  in  spite  of  these  warnings  of  the  past,  these  les- 
sons of  history,  and  the  teachings  of  reason  itself  that  tell 
thee  thy  fate  is  inextricably  joined  to  that  of  thy  brother, 
yet  once  again  thou  raisest  thy  sacrilegious  hand  against 
him;  once  again  thou  goest,  if  to  his  destruction,  no  less 
surely  to  thy  own. 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


113 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


ENTLEMEN,”  said  this  personal  representative  of  Hell; 
this  ex-congressman,  ex-senator,  ex-cabinet  member, 
present  politician,  lawyer  and  advisory  agent  of  this 
treasonous  council:  “You  hold  in  your  easy  grasp 


the  Ways  and  Means  for  the  rapid  and  final  closing  of  the 
ancient  and  perplexing  case  of  The  People  versus  Property. 

“Social  philosophers  and  politieal  economists  in  their 
acutest  definition  of  Man,  have  called  him  the  produeing  an- 
imal. That  is,  man  alone  lives  by  means  of  his  own  pro- 
ductions and  produces  by  means  of  machinery.  This  is  most 
obviously  and  vitally  true  of  the  massed  and  teeming  life  of 
modern  civilization.  Those  then  who  control  production,  its 
sources  and  machinery,  control  the  means  of  life,  and  there- 
fore, life  itself.  Old  Shylock  said  truly,  ‘you  take  my  life 
when  you  do  take  the  means  whereby  I live.’  Those  there- 
fore who  control  the  sources  and  machinery  of  producing  the 
means  of  living,  control  the  fountain  of  all  earthly  power. 
The  physical,  the  social,  the  moral,  the  intellectual,  the  po- 
litical at  last  bow  down  before  this  control  because  all  are  de- 
pendent upon  it. 

“A  few  more  links  of  logic  completes  this  philosopher’s 
chain  and  brings  me  to  the  point  I wish  to  make.  The  sources 
and  machinery  of  production  constitute  capital;  capital  con- 
stitutes the  only  true  property,  and  property  therefore,  is  the 
only  true  power.  Fundamentally  and  practically  there  is  no 
other.  The  breechless  giant,  the  moneyless  duke,  the  moral- 
ist in  rags,  the  philosopher  in  crocked  and  battered  hat,  the 
king  without  revenue,  the  people  without  property  are  but 
puny  and  sorrj^  objects.  Clothe  them  with  property  and  you 
clothe  them  with  power;  strip  them  of  property  and  you 
strip  them  of  power. 

“History  is  but  the  vitascope  in  which  this  principle  of  phi- 
losophy is  presented  before  us. 

“In  the  far-off  past,  property  was  held  in  the  right  of  phys- 


-114 


THE  COHSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


ical  miglit;  and  physical  might  possessing  itself  of  property 
possessed  itself  of  the  source  of  power  and  thus  held  its  sub- 
jects in  a double  bondage.  But  as  society  grew  into  the  com- 
munity, and  the  community  into  the  state,  the  physical  was 
gradually  merged  into  the  political  and  the  political  in  the 
course  of  time  became  the  lawful — the  legal.  As  this  change 
progressed  the  power  of  property  as  the  fundamental  power 
of  society  became  more  and  more  apparent  until  today  prop- 
>erty  held  by  the  right,  not  of  physical  might,  but  by  the  right 
'of  legal  might,  is  undisputedly  supreme  and  so  regarded  by 
ithose  who  understand  the  conditions  of  modern  life. 

“Mark  you,  I said  property  held  by  the  right  of  legal  might, 
for  I siiali  have  occasion  to  refer  again  to  that  phase  of  the 
situation. 

“Gentlemen,  you  and  those  you  represent  are  today,  the  un- 
disputed masters,  the  legal  possessors  of  the  undisputed 
means  of  power  in  this  country — the  sources,  the  machinery, 
the  means  of  production.  The  question  you  have  submitted  to 
me  is,  as  I understand  it,  how  may  this  possession  be  most 
securely  retained  in  present  hands,  or  rather  most  certainly 
prevented  from  passing  into  that  of  the  incapable  and  incom- 
petent iJopulace. 

“In  considering  the  ^Yays  and  Means  of  prevention,  we 
must  first  consider  and  have  a clear  understanding  of  the 
methods  by  which  such  an  undesirable  transfer  of  j)ossession 
could  possibly  be  effected.  These  methods  will  be  found  to  re- 
solve themselves  into  two.  The  possession  of  the  mighfy 
sources  of  industrial  power  which  you  own  and  control  can 
be  transferred  from  your  hands  into  that  of  the  people  only 
by  physical  might  or  by  legal  might — by  action  of  force  or  by 
action  of  law. 

“Action  of  law  can  be  effected  only  either  by  the  private 
acts  of  individuals  in  the  usual  course  of  commerce  and  trade 
or  by  the  public  acts  of  government  in  the  usual  course  of 
legislation  and  politics.  Whether  or  not  the  people  can  ever 
in  their  private  capacity  wrest  from  you  the  ownership  and 
control  of  the  property  powers  in  question  by  the  usual  meth- 
ods of  commerce  and  trade,  it  is  needless  I think  to  discuss. 
If  they  can,”  and  for  the  first  time  the  features  of  the  speaker 
relaxed  into  a characteristic  smile  that  seemed  a sort  of  com- 
posite reflection  of  the  smiles  of  pride  and  security  and  dis- 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


115 


dain  that  played  over  the  faces  of  his  client  audience;  “if 
they  can,  why  that  is  a private  matter  between  them  and  you 
and  is  a liberty  of  which  we  would  not  deprive  tbem.  It  would 
seem  that  the  certainty  of  failure  would  be  sufficiently  ap- 
parent to  deter  them  from  such  private  commercial  attempts 
but  such  we  know  has  not  been  the  case.  We  have  been 
treated  from  time  to  time  to  the  spectacle  of  ambitious  popu- 
lar organizations  having  for  their  object  the  initiation  and 
extension  of  the  principle  of  private  co-operative  ownership 
and  control  of  industry  in  general  and  distribution  in  par- 
ticular; said  extension  to  result  finally  and  naturally  in  re- 
solving the  millions  of  the  ‘hoi-polloi’  into  a monster  company 
identical  in  membership  and  territory  with  the  nation  itself. 
These  for  the  most  part  have  as  a matter  of  course  died  ere 
they  were  born  and  in  any  case  can  usually  be  left  to  the 
nipping  frosts  of  the  greed,  the  over-reaching,  the  distrust 
and  general  managerial  incompetency  of  both  membership  and 
directors.  If  anything  else  be  needed  to  the  utter  overthrow 
of  these  attempts  at  the  legal  seizure  of  industrial  power  by 
the  people  in  their  private  capacity,  you  have  but  to  inter" 
pose  most  lightly  and  the  project  falls  to  the  ground.  Whether 
or  not  the  last  and  most  audacious  of  these  attempts  shall  be 
left  to  the  usual  natural  fate  of  such  organizations  or  shall 
be  hastened  to  its  end  by  your  interposing  shadow,  is  but  for 
you  to  determine.  I refer  of  course  to  the  organization  knowi^ 
as  the  Industrial  Socialists. 

“Like  the  many  similar  organizations  which  have  preceded 
it  to  a disastrous  end,  it  might  be  safely  left  to  the  disinte- 
grating effects  of  the  selfish  antagonisms  inherent  in  human 
nature  which  forever  make  impracticable  all  co-operative 
schemes  of  large  magnitude;  but  the  bad  effects  on  the  peo- 
ple of  its  continued  success  and  larger  growth  and  most  es- 
pecially the  popular  effects  of  some  new  and  dangerous  prin- 
ciples involved  in  its  industrial  system,  may  perhaps  justify 
its  quickened  destruction  at  your  hands. 

“The  new  and  dangerous  principles  to  which  I refer  and 
which  I believe  require  the  immediate  suppression  of  the  or- 
der, are  embodied  in  its  monetary  plan  and  its  so-called  Po- 
licing of  Industry;  the  former  professedly  reducing  money  to 
simply  and  only  a medium  of  exchange,  a counter  in  trade, 
destroying  all  its  private  investment  and  private  money-loan- 


THE  CONSPifiACi’'  CAttTAL. 


n6 

ing  qualities  by  placing  upon  the  collectivity  the  duty  of  me- 
diumizing  all  values,  which  is  but  another  way  of  saying  that 
the  government  shall  be  the  only  money-loaner;  the  latter  re- 
quiring of  all  labor-employing  industries  a recognized  responsi- 
bility to  public  supervision  and  control  in  regard  to  wages  and 
dividends  and  profits,  involving  a most  abject  subjection  of 
private  affairs  to  a most  inquisitorial  public  inspection.  The 
disruption  of  the  society  at  this  stage  of  its  growth  would  I 
believe  result  in  a most  salutary  lesson  to  the  people.  You 
have  but  to  speak,  and  it  is  done.  At  a breath  from  you  this 
i’elatively  and  powerful  and  successful  organization  will  be 
scattered  as  chaff  before  the  wind.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me 
to  suggest  the  Ways  and  Means  of  effecting  so  small  a matter.” 

Whether  the  courtly  gentleman  of  dignified  cunning  meant 
morally  small  or  commercially  small  he  did  not  stop  to  ex- 
plain. Certainly  there  were  none  in  that  assembly  who  would 
hare  put  the  former  construction  upon  it. 

“Other  and  mightier  opponents  have  gone  down  before 
your  quiet  methods  of  boycott,  discrimination  and  concen- 
trated competition  and  so  will  this  latest.  If  however,  any- 
thing else  be  needed  to  complete  its  dissolution,  you  have  but 
to  introduce  your  agents  into  the  organization  and  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  courts  will  do  the  rest;  a few  injunctions  and 
forced  receiverships  would  alone  destroy  its  usefulness.  And 
as  I have  said  of  all  attempts  of  the  people  at  your  ouster  by 
legal  might  from  the  possession  of  the  industrial  powers  of 
the  country  through  the  private  methods  of  trade  and  com- 
merce, they  are  foredoomed  to  failure.  They  may  therefore 
be  dismissed  from  further  consideration;”  and  with  a wave  of 
his  hand,  he  swept  out  of  existence  the  hope  of  the  independ- 
ent laborer,  farmer  and  artizan,  the  free  and  independent  in- 
dividual workman  wherever  he  toiled  for  a simple  living,  an 
humble  home,  a crust  of  bread  unpoisoned  and  unshadowed  bj 
the  presence  of  a Master;  the  same,  same  graceful  gesture  of 
the  elegant  and  refined  exponent  of  modern  demonology, 
and  demonolatry,  likewise  swept  out  of  existence  the 
hope  of  any  combinations,  industrial  or  commercial, 
having  for  their  object  the  just  and  free  participation 
of  the  individual  members  in  the  result  of  their  toil. 
In  that  gentle  w'ave  of  the  white  hand  of  the  in- 
dividualist, individualism  swallowed  up  the  individual  in  an 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


117 


eighty  million  mouthful  and  there  remained  after  the  simil- 
itude of  Jonah  and  the  whale,  only  the  people  and  the  trusts; 
in  sight,  only  the  trusts;  inside,  only  the  people.  But  let  us 
see  how  the  advisory  agent  expresses  it. 

“There  remains  then,  gentlemen,  only  two  methods 
through  which  your  property  and  your  powers  may  be  com- 
passed by  the  people — through  physical  might  or  through  the 
legal  might,  not  of  private  action  in  trade  and  industry,  but 
of  public  action  in  politics  and  g'overnment.  Private  endeavor 
is,  as  we  have  seen,  eliminated  from  the  problem.  There  re- 
mains for  the  people  only  the  revolution  of  force  or  the  revo- 
lution of  political  action.  Of  the  two  I am  unable  to  decide 
from  which  you  have  the  least  to  fear.  The  Ways  and  Means 
that  will  prevent  and  frustrate  the  one  can  be  largely  de- 
pended upon  to  prevent  and  frustrate  the  other;  and  as  1 
have  said,  of  those  Ways  and  Means  you  are  the  easy  Master. 

“For  instance,  taking  first  the  revolution  oi  Force,  mean- 
ing thereby  a popular  uprising  of  the  people  and  not  a local 
riot  or  ‘emeute,’  I have  only  to  remind  you  that  that  means 
war,  and  that  war  in  these  modern  times  means  organization 
and  machinery,  and  organization  and  machinery  mean  capital. 
The  engines  of  modern  warfare  are  veritable  machines  that 
require  capital  and  large  and  well  organized  capital  to  pro- 
duce and  operate.  The  days  of  the  knotted  club,  the  battle-ax 
and  the  broadsword  are  gone.  War  now  requires  the 
mighty  cannon,  the  matchless  machine  guns,  the  rapid-fire 
rifles,  the  dynamite  projectors  and  ammunition  literally  by  the 
ton.  The  multitude  without  the  modern  equipments  of  war 
are  but  a rabble;  and  they  are  not  only  without  them  today, 
but  the  possession  of  those  in  existence  are  practically  in 
hands  entirely  friendly  to  your  interests;  whether  or  not  you 
control  the  means  of  producing  others,  I leave  to  be  answered 
by  the  president  of  the  National  Arms  and  Ammunition  trust 
whom  I see  is  present. 

“So  much  for  the  machinery  of  war — now  as  to  its  organ- 
ization. The  latter  requires  first,  that  a sentiment  favorable 
to  it  be  aroused  among  the  people;  that  means  agitation,  and 
agitation  can  practically  be  effected  only  through  the  chan- 
nels of  communication,  news  dissemination  and  tte  methods 
of  popular  education  which  you  undoubtedly  control.  The 
president  of  the  Consolidated  Press  who  is  also  present,  in- 


118 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


forms  liic  iiliat  their  organization  and  news  monopv,,^  _s  now 
so  perfect  that  it  is  possible  to  isolate  completely  anj'  and 
every  locality  from  the  general  news  of  the  country  except 
as  the  same  may  creep  into  public  knowledge  by  the  slow  pro- 
cess of  the  mail;  or  to  state  it  differently,  any  undesirable 
news  may  be  strictly  confined  to  the  locality  In  which  the 
happening  occurred;  and  so  thorough  is  the  understanding  and 
concert  of  action  among  the  great  central  newspapers  of  the 
country,  the  mighty  metropolitan  press  upon  wlilch  not  only 
their  own  direct  constituency  depends  for  news,  but  the  coun- 
try and  exchange  press  as  well,  that  news  suppression  and 
dissemination  are  under  absolute  control.  Add  to  these  com- 
fortable facts,  the  further  statement  that  jmu  liave  in  your 
hands  the  telegraph  lines  which  furnish  the  only  means  of 
private  raj)id  communication  and  the  transportation  lines 
which  carry  the  public  mails,  and  that  the  postoffice  depart- 
ment itself  is  subservient  to  your  influence,  and  you  wiU  at 
once  see  that  in  a country  territorially  as  large  as  ours,  no 
revolutionary  agitation  can  be  successfullj^  carried  on,  no  revo- 
lutionary organization  successfully  effected,  and  no  concerted 
movement  possible  among  the  people.  In  a word,  you  Liave 
it  in  your  power  to  work  the  wondrous  miracle  of  rolling  up 
like  a scroll  six  centuries  of  time  for  the  people  and  reducing 
them  to  the  days  of  the  stage  coach,  the  private  post  and  the 
penman’s  art;  while  you  yourselves  remain  heirs  of  all  the 
ages,  speaking  across  continents,  gathering  the  news  of  the 
world  from  hamlet  to  mart  at  each  morning's  breakfast  ta- 
ble and  masters  of  all  the  modern  means  of  organization,  ed- 
ucation and  intelligence;  able  therebj*,  not  onlj'  to  prevent  ad- 
verse agitation,  education  and  organization  among  the  masses 
and  keep  them  ignorant  of  things  not  mete  for  them  to  know, 
but  to  mould  them  to  your  hand  by  educating  them  as  you 
desire,  agitating  your  own  cause  and  discounting  undesirable 
news  and  retarding  damaging  facts  before  they  can  work 
their  evil;  and  bewildering,  confusing  and  dividing  where  j'ou 
cannot  convince  and  unite  to  your  own  purposes. 

To  strengthen  the  already  seemingly  impregnable  posi- 
tion of  the  great  property  interests  of  the  country,  I would 
recommend  in  this  connection  that  the  movement  so  well  be- 
gun of  building  armories  and  establishing  barracks  at  all  the 
large  labor  and  transportation  centers  be  continued.  These 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


119 


should  be  so  equipped  and  enlarged  and  strengthened  as  to 
make  them  practically  unassailable  by  any  local  uprising  of 
the  people.  The  National  Guard  and  regular  army  should  be 
increased  in  both  numbers  and  efficiency  and  the  Arms  and 
Ammunition  trust  should  make  complete  their  control  of  the 
producing  plants  of  the  country  and  as  far  as  practicable 
should  place  their  better  class  of  small  arms  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  wage-earning  classes  by  placing  prohibitory  prices 
upon  them.  Fortunately,  most  of  our  large  labor-employing 
centers  are  lake  or  sea-coast  cities,  where  under  the  plausible 
pretext  of  a foreign  foe,  the  largest  and  completest  govern- 
ment military  works  may  be  established.  Under  the  same 
plea  the  most  extensive  plants  for  the  production  cV  the  most 
modern  and  deadly  engines  of  war  both  government  and  pri- 
vate, may  and  should  at  once  be  carried  forward  to  comple- 
tion. These  things  done,  a handful  of  our  soldiers  will  easily 
control  any  riotous  mass  of  the  populace,  and  a display  of 
our  power  will  overawe  and  quell  the  mightiest  concourse  of 
malcontents  that  they  will  be  able  to  gather  together. 

“So  much  for  the  ‘machinery  of  war.’  A word  now  as  to 
the  means  of  organizing’  a Revolution  of  Force.  On  all  the 
modern  facilities  for  organization  you  should  obtain  a stCl 
firmer  grasp.  The  censorship  of  the  news  should  be  even  more 
rigid,  the  metropolitan  press  should  be  organized  into  a still 
closer  corporation.  Newspapers  offensive  to  your  interests 
should  be  mercilessly  but  quietly  blacklisted  and  boycotted  as 
only  Capital  knows  how  to  do  it.  The  so-called  reform  press 
should  be  made  to  feel  that  ‘Jordan  is  a hard  road  to  travel,’ 
and  that  it  grows  harder  and  more  difficult  as  the  months  roll 
on.  The  establishment  of  new  sheets  of  that  kind  should  be 
made  next  to  impossible,  by  charging  letter  postage  on  sam- 
ple copies  of  all  newspapers  not  already  having  a bona-fide 
subscription  list,  and  by  denying  admission  to  the  mails  as 
second-class  matter  all  publications  that  have  not  such  lists 
established.  The  Postal  laws  must  be  so  amended  as  to  give 
the  Postmaster  General  the  right  to  deny  the  use  of  the  mails 
to  such  persons  or  organizations  as  he  may  have  reason  to 
believe  are  using  them  for  incendiary  purposes,  such  as  in- 
citing the  people  to  riot,  insnrrection  or  other  forms  of  treason, 
in  much  the  same  manner  as  he  now  has  the  power  to  deny 
mail  privileges  to  such  as  he  may  believe  are  using  them  for 


320 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


fraudulent  purposes.  The  railroad,  express  and  telegraph 
trusts  should  closely  follow  the  actions  of  the  authorities  in 
these  particulars  and  promptly  second  them,  by,  so  far  as  prac- 
ticable, quietly  denying  the  use  of  their  facilities  to  their  em- 
ployes or  others  for  such  purposes.  If  your  labor  organiza- 
tions are  disposed  to  be  troublesome,  the  means  just  suggested 
may  be  used  to  frustrate  concert  of  action  between  them. 
Nor  has  the  power  of  injunction  been  exhausted  by  our  courts; 
but  I would  suggest  as  the  surest  means  of  their  control,  the, 
influencing  of  their  officials  by  systematic  political  support, 
through  whom  alone  the  members  may  adequately  act.  Those 
who  cannot  be  properly  influenced  must  sj’stematically  be 
made  to  feel  that  the  power  of  property  is  not  to  be  safely  at- 
tacked. You  know  how  to  dispose  of  such  unruly  agitators 
and  leaders;  but  quietly,  gentlemen,  quietly,  in  all  things.  The 
dignified  and  reposeful  exercise  of  power  is  most  impressive 
as  well  as  most  effective.” 

The  attorney  in  an  unconscious  gesture  here  showed  his 
own  dignified  and  reposeful  person  to  the  best  advantage  as 
a living  and  therefore  the  most  impressive  and  effective  illus- 
tration of  his  remark.  Pausing  a moment  as  though  to  ob- 
serve the  full  effect  of  this  personal  illustration  of  his  own 
innermost  character  and  methods,  he  continued: 

“I  come  now  a step  nearer  the  real  purpose  of  our  delib- 
erations which  is  to  decide  not  simply  on  the  Ways  and  Means 
of  preventing  the  people  from  possessing  themselves  ‘en 
masse’  of  the  property  powers  of  the  country,  either  by  a Kev- 
olution  of  Force  or  by  a Political  Eevolution,  but  to  destroy 
utterly  as  far  as  may  be  the  Spirit  of  Change,  of  insubordina- 
tion or  revolution  among  the  people.  Your  present  possse- 
sion  must  not  only  be  made  secure,  but  the  futiire  must  be 
cleared  of  all  menace,  all  threats,  all  doubts.  To  that  end,  as 
so  accurately  stated  by  President  Gorman,  the  very  Spirit  of 
Insubordination  that  broods  among  the  people  must  be  forever 
quenched.  The  causes  that  produce  this  spirit  of  unrest,  of 
discontent,  of  insubordination  among  the  lower  classes  have 
also  been  very  tersely  stated  by  !Mr.  Gorman  as  prosperity, 
education  and  political  power  beyond  their  station.  High 
wages  result  in  a standard  of  living  and  a hope  that  is  very 
destructive  of  the  -proper  class  feeling  and  respect  which  the 
wage-earning  people  must  for  their  own  good  and  the  good  of 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


121 


society  and  government  be  brought  to  possess.  Like  the  peas- 
ant in  the  poem,  it  causes  ‘a  vague  unrest,  a nameless  longing 
to  fill  their  breast;  a wish  they  hardly  dare  to  own,  for  some- 
thing more  than  they  have  known;’  not  only  that,  but  a rela- 
tive high  standard  of  living  raises  correspondingly  what  I 
may  term  the  Level  of  Despair.  That  is,  the  Level  of  Despair 
follows  closely  the  accustomed  standard  of  living.  But  a 
curious  property  of  this  Desperation  Level,  is,  that  it  can  only 
be  reached  by  a sudden  drop  in  {he  standard  of  living.  If  the 
latter  is  lowered  gradually,  the  level  at  which  despair  and  con- 
sequent desperation  is  reached  keeps  steadily  below  it,  until 
a people  can  finally  be  brought  to  live  very  contentedly 
in  a state  which  if  they  had  reached  suddenly  would 
have  seemed  desperate.  This  fact  must  be  taken  into 
consideration  by  you  in  the  general  lowering  of  wages 
and  consequent  standard  of  living  which  you  are  con- 
templating for  the  people.  For  I warn  you,  that  the  Level 
of  Despair  must  not  be  reached  by  a majority  of  our  people 
at  any  time;  for  if  it  should  be,  all  our  calculations  will  have 
been  made  in  vain.  Despair  and  Desperation  can  no  more  be 
controlled  by  calculation  or  reason  or  foresight  than  could 
formerly  ‘spontaneous  combustion.’  Y^our  organizing  power, 
your  power  over  organization  among  the  people,  would 
prove  to  be  a but  a rope  of  sand.  Make  a cut  in  wages,  sudden, 
deep  and  general  and  the  beast  that  now  fawns  upon  you  and 
cowers  before  you  in  chains  that  seem  to  us  beyond  his 
strength,  will  break  them  like  threads  and  turn  and  rend  you 
and  destroy  you. 

“But  wages  may  be  safely  lowered  gradually"  ana  systemat- 
ically or  suddenly  among  now  one  class  of  laborers  and  then 
another  as  you  may  have  some  special  purpose  to  serve  in  the, 
industry  in  which  they  are  engaged.  The  working  people  too, 
must  firmly  be  made  to  understand  that  a general  lowering  of 
wages  and  standard  of  living  is  inevitable  from  natural  eauses. 
such  as  increasing  density  of  population,  fiercer  competition 
of  one  section  of  the  country  with  another,  greater  purchasing, 
power  of  money  and  natural  over-production  incident  to  the 
use  of  labor-saving  machinery  in  industry.  That  this  last  will  re- 
sult in  producing  a large  and  permanent  class  of  unemployed 
can  not  be  doubted;  and  to  that  fact  must  the  people  be 
brought  to  accustom  themselves.  This  class,  the  unemployed. 


122 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


while  miserable  in  the  extreme,  I regard  as  very  useful  and 
necessary,  not  to  say  indispensable  to  our  modern  scheme  of 
industry  and  civilization.  They  can  never  prove  dangerous, 
for  their  numbers  must  always  be  but  a tithe  of  our  poulation. 
What  are  a few  scattered  millions  among  our  teeming  popu- 
lace, and  besides  those  forced  into  that  class  are  ever  in  the 
main  the  shiftless,  wavering,  weak,  incompetent  creatures  who 
do  but  cumber  the  earth  under  any  circumstances  and  their 
Level  of  Despair  is  so  low  that  their  maintenance  will  always 
be  an  insignificant  item  to  society  upon  which  they  must  de- 
pend. They  seem  to  realize  that  it  is  a great  charity  to  permit 
them  to  exist  as  best  they  maj'  and  are  consequently  grateful 
to  be  granted  such  permission.  They  are  indispensable  to  us 
however,  for  they  are  the  greatest  levers  we  have  in  breaking 
the  etiorts  of  labor  organizations  and  in  forcing  continuall5' 
lower  wages  upon  the  emploj'ed.  The  unemployed  man  is  al- 
ways so  much  more  dependent  than  the  emploj-ed,  and  his 
standard  of  living  so  much  lower  that  he  always  regards  the 
latter  as  a very  lucky  fellow  whatever  his  wages  may  be  and 
as  a general  thing  stands  eagerly  ready  to  take  any  abandoned 
place  opened  to  him.  It  is  chiefly  by  means  of  this  utterly  de- 
pendent class  that  the  dependence  of  the  whole  body  of  wage- 
earners  is  finally  to  be  irresistibly  effected.  A few  judicious 
turns  of  the  wage-screw  and  thej’  will  all  realize  and  feel  this 
dependence,  and  when  they  are  in  fact  industrially  dependent 
upon  you  and  feel  and  realize  it,  they  are  yours.  To  effect 
this,  the  wage-rate  must  continuallj'  be  so  adjusted  as  to  keep 
the  standard  .of  living  among  our  lower  classes  too  low  for 
realizable  hoj)e,  too  high  for  utter  despair. 

“The  second  in  our  trio  of  insubordination  breeders,  ‘ed- 
ucation beyond  their  station,’  cultivates  the  spirit  of  insubor- 
dination in  much  the  same  way  as  ‘over-prosperity’  does.  It 
creates  in  the  people  a desire  for  a standard  of  living  above 
their  class  and  besides  makes  them  dissatisfied  with  their  fixed 
condition  in  life  and  unfits  them  for  the  performance  of  the 
hard  duties  incident  to  and  inseparable  from  it.  This  evil  must 
be  remedied.  I do  not  however  believe  it  to  be  feasible  to  make 
a direct  attack  upon  the  free  public  school  system  as  an  insti- 
tution. But  there  are  more  ways  of  taking  the  life  of  a canine 
than  filling  its  trachea  with  butter.  There  are  some  really 
meritorious  public  school  reforms  which  the  people  will  read- 


THE  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 


123 


ily  accept  as  such  without  suspicion  and  which  will  serve  our 
purpose  quite  as  well. 

“The  Institution  may  not  be  diminished,  but  the  school  age, 
school  term  apd  school  day  may  very  properly  be.  This  is  but 
incidental  however.  My  main  recommendation  is  to  attack  not 
the  institution  but  its  curriculum.  Gradually  cut  down  the 
literary  and  scientific  courses  and  substitute  therefor  Manual 
Training.  And  the  press  controlled  by  you  should  advocate 
this  reform  quietly  and  opportunely. 

“Manual  Training,  gentlemen,  is  the  key  by  which  a gen- 
tleman’s education  may  be  locked  from  the  people.  If  appren- 
ticeship were  practicable  that  would  be  a remedy,  or  rather 
would  make  a remedy  unnecessary.  But  the  times  are  changed 
and  the  ancient  and  honorable  Institution  of  apprenticeship 
is  gone  forever;  for  apprenticeship  means  trades,  and  today 
there  are  no  trades.  Organization  has  destroyed  them.  The 
tenth  part  of  a trade  may  be  learned,  the  thumb  or  the  big-toe 
of  a trade,  but  no  trade. 

“Manual  training  furnishes  however  a perfect  substitute  in 
effect  for  the  lost  apprenticeship.  The  Industrial  School  must 
more  and  more  be  made  to  take  the  place  of  the  literary  school. 
The  hands  and  eyes  and  bodily  powers  of  the  future  genera- 
tions of  workers  may  thus  be  educated  to  the  purposes  which 
they  must  serve  in  life.  But  as  it  is  neither  necessary  nor  de- 
sirable for  their  brains  to  serve  any  particular  purpose  aside 
from  their  vocation,  brain  education  per  se  may  very  profita- 
bly for  society  be  suffered  to  fall  into  ‘innocuous  desuetude.’  As 
I have  said,  the  people  themselves  will  take  very  kindly  and  in- 
nocently to  this  reform,  for  I repeat,  it  really  is  in  many  ways 
very  desirable  apart  from  any  ulterior  motives  connected  with 
it.  Give  the  people  this  in  lieu  of  history,  ancient  and  modern 
languages,  literature,  science,  economics,  civil  government, 
etc.,  and  they  will  be  quite  satisfied  if  their  children  can  but 
indifferently  read,  write  and  cipher.’’ 


« 


’24 


THE  COHSPlEAC'x  OF  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


POLITICAL  REVOLUTION. 

There  remains  then  to  be  considered,  the  tnird  and 
last  of  the  causes  that  lead  to  unrest  and  mutiny 
among  the  masses,  namely,  the  possession  of  political 
privileges  incompatible  with  their  station  in  life,  in- 
consistent with  their  dependent  and  subordinate  condition  and 
quite  beyond  their  powers  of  mind  to  exercise  wiselj'  or  safely. 

“How  may  this  evil  be  remedied?  This  brings  me  to  the 
consideration  of  the  second  of  the  only  two  possible  means  by 
which  the  people  could  triumph  over  property — namely.  Po- 
litical Revolution.  How  may  it  be  prevented?  If  I have  felt 
that  I was  treading  the  firm  earth  before,  I feel  now  that  in  my 
understanding  of  this  phase  of  the  subject  and  my  ability  to 
handle  it,  the  firm  earth  has  changed  to  solid  rock. 

“Effectual  Political  Revolution  by  the  masses  is  if  possible, 
even  more  impossible  than  a Revolution  of  Force.  Political 
power  has  already  practically  passed  from  their  hands.  The 
popular  ballot  is  today  but  a popular  bauble.  It  can  never  be 
effectually  used  against  you.  As  in  industrial,  so  in  political 
power  you  hold  the  famous  ‘nine  points  of  the  law.’  and  in  pol- 
itics the  nine  points  control  the  tenth,  as  indeed  in  industry  it 
does  as  well.  Political  independence  can  never  be  associated 
in  the  same  person  with  industrial  dependence.  As  long  as 
any  considerable  portion  of  the  people  are  industrially  your 
dependents,  they  will  remain  your  political  dependents.  A ma- 
jority are  so  today,  will  remain  so  and  more  will  rapidly  be- 
come so  as  the  determinations  of  this  council  are  put  into  ex- 
ecution. 

“Again,  successful  effort  by  the  people  through  political 
action  essentially  requires  agitation  and  education  to  arouse 
a favorable  sentiment,  and  organization  to  put  the  sentiment 
into  effect.  As  I have  already  reminded  you,  the  means  and 
facilities  for  popular  agitation,  education  and  organization^re 
under  your  complete  control.  The  people  are  absolutely  shut  off 
from  these  first  necessary  requisites  to  successful  action;  and 


POLITICAL  EEVOLUTIOJr. 


125 


those  incomplete  organizations  which  they  may  and  will  from 
time  to  time  etfect,  impotent  hy  reason  of  their  very  incom- 
pleteness, can  be  rendered  utterly  harmless  by  the  usual  meth- 
ods of  controlling  their  leaders.  There  are  always  a sufficient 
number  of  those  who  make  their  way  to  the  front  in  every  so- 
called  reform  political  organization,  who  are  susceptible  to  in- 
fluence. They  are  after  loaves  and  Ashes  of  one  brand  or  an- 
other and  we  know  that  they  know  who  possesses  the  brands 
they  eovet,  whatever  their  name  may  be.  Those  political  par- 
ties to  which  full  organizing  facilities  are  permitted  will  of 
course  always  be  officered  in  their  highest  leadership  by  those 
in  proper  sympathy  wuth  the  property  interests  of  the  country. 
This  has  been  and  always  will  be  the  case,  because  modern  po- 
litical organization  and  manipulation  is  a science,  and  science 
requires  intellect,  and  intellect  was  never  yet  allied  very 
strongly  with  the  masses.  It  goes  where  it  naturally  belongs, 
to  the  conserving  and  civilizing  influences  of  society.  The 
lesser  officers  and  leaders  of  these  dominant  political  parties 
will,  by  those  natural  instincts  of  their  constitutions  which 
bring  them  to  the  front,  be  yours  ever  most  obediently  to 
serve. 

“But  gentlemen,  not  only  are  the  people  completely  shut 
out  from  effective  political  power  by  their  industrial  depeiffi- 
ence,  their  agitational  and  educational  dependence,  and  their 
organizing  dependence  upon  you,  but  to  set  the  seal  forever 
upon  their  political  impotence,  they  are  bound  hand  and  foot 
by  the  very  form  and  plan  of  our  most  wise  governmental  sys- 
tem itself.  I am  ready  to  stake  my  reputation  as  a politician 
and  statesman  upon  the  truth  of  this  declaration — that  foi; 
completest  and  safest  investment  of  Class  and  Property  with 
effective  political  sovereignty  to  the  people,  no  form  of  gov- 
ernment has  ever  been  or  ever  will  be  devised  equal  to  that  of 
a representative,  constitutional  democracy  such  as  ours.  That 
may  appear  to  be  a remarkable  declaration  but  I repeat  it — 
no  other  form  of  government  so  effectually  and  safely  closes 
the  door  of  sovereignty  on  the  people,  and  so  effectually  and 
safely  opens  it  and  keeps  it  open  for  Property  and  Class.  No 
other  so  guarantees  conservatism,  that  is,  the  Established 
Order  of  Things,  with  such  favorable  changes  as  the  Estab- 
lished Order  may  desire;  and  no  other  so  completely  prevents 
popular  reforms  as  the  people  understand  that  term.  Giving 


126 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


the  people  the  semblance  of  power  over  every  department  of 
the  government,  it  everywhere  denies  them  the  substance. 
Ostensibly  and  by  construction  a government  by  their  consent, 
it  really  and  in  fact  is  a government  in  which  their  consent  is 
nil.  It  gives  them  the  privilege  of  selecting  the  agents  of  au- 
thority but  absolutely  no  direct  power  over  their  acts.  They 
may  pass  upon  men,  but,  and  here  is  their  bondage,  not  upon 
measures.  Having  selected  their  agents,  they  can  neither  force 
them  to  any  desired  action,  nor  having  acted  contrary  to  their 
desire,  can  they  revoke  their  acts.  I say  the  people  can  not. 
Their  only  remedy  is  no  remedy,  for  it  is  but  a repetition  of 
the  farce,  electing  other  agents  endowed  with  like  powers. 
Their  agents  are  in  fact  not  agents,  not  servants,  but  despots 
in  their  sphere  so  far  as  the  people  are  concerned,  independ- 
ent of  them,  above  them,  over  them. 

“Naturally  and  as  a matter  of  course  these  creatures-of- 
the-hour  act  for  the  public  weal  only  and  alone  when  their  in- 
dividual weal  does  not  prompt  them  to  act  otherwise.  And 
here  is  the  especial  opportunity  of  Property  and  Class  (the 
many  and  potent  campaign  and  ante-election  opportunities  be- 
ing passed  over)  here  is  the  especial  opportunity  of  Property 
and  Class  to  see  to  it  that  the  individual  weal  is  made  para- 
mount to  that  of  the  consenting,  helpless  public.  It  may  not 
be  indeed  that  every  man  has  his  price,  as  that  eminent  and 
high-priced  statesman  Walpole  so  sagaciously  observed;  but 
certain  it  is  that  enough  of  these  ‘agents  of  the  people’ 
will  always  be  found  ready  priced  and  priced  low. 

“No  better  evidence  could  be  adduced  touching  the  utter 
incapacity  of  the  masses  for  self-government  and  unfitness  to 
be  entrusted  with  real  political  or  industrial  power  than  this 
conception  of  theirs,  that  sovereigntj*  consists  in  the  right  to 
delegate  authority  and  not  in  the  right  to  control  continuously 
the  acts  of  the  person  to  whom  authority  is  so  delegated;  in 
the  right  to  choose  their  political  despots  and  not  in  the  right 
to  control  them,  to  make  of  them  ofhce-men,  not  officials. 

“To  illustrate  still  further  this  profound  misconception 
and  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the  people,  of  things  govern- 
mental and  their  inability  ever  to  exercise  real  power  in  this 
country,  they  are  almost  unanimous  in  their  belief  that  the 
only  way  to  prevent  or  escape  the  despotism  of  their  chosen 
agents,  is  first — to  have  as  manj'  despots  as  possible,  not  per- 


POLITICAL  KEYOLUTION. 


127 


ceiving  that  in  their  numbers  individual  responsibility  is 
evaded,  avoided,  shirked,  thrown  from  one  to  another,  then  to 
nebulous  majorities  and  finally  to  that  arch-humbug  and  scape- 
goat— party;  not  perceiving  that  with  their  conception  of  sover- 
eignty and  for  their  purposes  the  fewest  possible  agents,  nay 
one  supreme  one  in  whom  all  authority  should  for  the  time 
appointed  be  invested,  would  be  infinitely  better  than  a multi- 
tude in  that  it  concentrated,  if  authority,  also  individual  re- 
sponsibility and  in  the  same  degree  the  power  of  public  opin- 
ion which  alone  can  control  such  agents. 

“Second,  having  selected  their  despots  and  surrendered  the 
sovereign  power  to  them,  they  childishly  think  to  escape  the 
effects  of  their  folly  by  dividing  the  powers  of  government  into 
executive,  legislative  and  judicial.  It  is  a popular  sentiment 
amounting  to  a fetich  or  superstition  that  if  these  three  func-* 
tions  of  government  can  be  kept  separate,  the  people  are  safe 
from  political  oppression.  They  think  by  electing  some  of 
their  numbers  executive  despots,  others  legislative  despots  and 
others  judicial  despots,  the  one  acting  as  a check  upon  the 
other,  the  whole  problem  of  government  and  popiular  inde- 
pendence is  solved.  They  fail  to  see  that  responsibility  is 
again  divided  and  lost,  that  to  secure  action  favorable  to  them- 
selves all  three  sets  of  despots  must  be  faithful  to  popular  in- 
terests, and  that  on  the  other  hand  the  so-called  enemies  to  the 
general  weal  have  only  to  secure  one  set  favorable  to  them, 
and  may  by  influencing  first  one  and  then  another  and  another, 
now  this  one,  now  that,  now  the  other,  completely  block  any 
‘reform’  of  the  people  and  easily  secure  what  they  want  them- 
selves. They  do  not  perceive  that  to  divide  power  among  ir- 
responsible agents  is  but  to  furnish  the  ‘cups’  for  the  shell- 
man’s  game,  and  that  such  a government  is  only  the  ancient 
game  of  thimble-rig  over  again,  and  that  again  the  bumpkin 
is  the  victim  when  he  thought  he  had  a sure  thing. 

“The  people  can  not  comprehend  that  however  convenient 
and  highly  proper  and  important  such  a division  of  powers  may 
be,  the  essential  reason  therefor  is  simply  and  alone  that  tTle 
public  eye  may  easily  and  clearly  see  the  every  process  by  which 
governmental  effects  are  produced,  in  order  that,  not  individ- 
ual but  functional  responsibility  may  be  identified,  to  tile  end 
that  the  people  themselves  by  direct  act  could  remedy  the 
wrong  or  the  defect.  The  essential  reason  for  the  division  of 


12S 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


g-overnment  functions  is  not  primarily  for  safety  from  func- 
tionaries, but  for  clearness  of  popular  vision  into  processes; 
the  end  is  safety  of  course,  not  by  making  one  a check  against 
another,  but,  seeing  clearly  where  the  evil  lies  to  remedy  it 
by  forcing  the  proper  performance  of  the  one  going  wrong. 
The  object  is  to  enable  the  sovereignty  to  say — our  agents  fail 
in  the  execution  of  a law,  we  direct  its  execution;  our  agents 
err  in  their  judgment  of  a law,  we  direct  this  judgment;  our 
agents  refuse  to  make  or  repeal  a law,  we  make  or  repeal  it. 
The  people  are  blind  to  this  vital  principle  and  being  blind  to 
it,  they  may  be  led  whithersoever  you  list. 

“But  their  crowning  folly  and  our  greatest  security  lies  in 
their  third  and  most  trusted  refuge  against  the  power  of  their 
chosen  agents,  namely,  their  reverenced  and  most  holy  consti- 
tution; a trojan  horse  taken  by  them  for  the  one  and  only  true 
palladium  of  liberty. 

“Constitutional  rights  is  a word  they  conjure  with;  but 
constitutional-wrongs  is  a word  they  know  nothing  of.  Now 
a constitution  like  the  division  of  government  functions,  is 
right  and  proper  enough  if  confined  to  its  legitimate  purpose. 
It  is  a convenient  instrument  for  directing  governmental 
agents  in  the  performance  of  their  duties;  it  is  proper  enougli 
as  a general  ‘letter-of-instruction’  to  office-men  informing 
them  on  important  heads  of  duties  how  far  they  may  go  and 
where  stop,  in  the  absence  of  special  instructions  and  advice 
from  their  principal;  its  legitimate  purpose  is  to  direct,  In- 
struct and  restrain  subordinates.  But  the  ludicrous,  the  ri- 
diculous, the  childish  aspect  of  the  popular  conception  lies  in 
the  fact,  that  they  make  their  constitution  restrain  them- 
selves as  well  as  their  servants;  they  make  it  a letter  of  in- 
struction to  themselves  as  well  as  their  agents  and  one  that 
practically  can  not  be  recalled,  amended  or  changed.  It  not 
only  irrevocably  binds  themselves  but  their  posteritt'  to  un- 
numbered generations  as  well.  Not  only  that,  but  to  clinch  the 
thing,  to  forge  and  rivet  the  chain  of  their  own  making  un- 
alterably upon  themselves,  they  have  even  denied  themselves 
the  right  of  declaring  what  their  constitution  means  and  given 
the  authority  of  interpreting  it  unreservedly  into  the  keeping 
of  agents  removed  the  furthest  possible  from  them — agents 
whom  they  can  neither  select,  remove  nor  control.  I know  of 
nothing  in  all  history  to  parallel  this  remarkable  display  of 


POLITICAL  EEVOLUTIOX. 


129 


simplicity  in  the  masses.  But,  gentlemen,  in  their  simplicity 
lies  your  opportunity  and  your  safety.  The  powers  which 
you  possess  can  not  be  wrested  from  you  except  the  plan  of 
government  be  first  radically  changed  or  at  least  the  constitu- 
tion be  vitally  amended.  The  processes  by  which  such  amend- 
ments and  changes  can  only  be  effected,  place  them  among  the 
things  virtually  impossiule  so  far  as  the  people  are  con- 
cerned. As  I said  therefore  a moment  ago,  the  very  form  and 
plan  of  our  government  bind  the  people  hand  and  foot  in  un- 
breakable chains  of  their  own  forging.  The  founders  of  gov- 
ernment purposely  or  accidentallj%  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, have  most  skillfully  rendered  the  people  impotent 
while  apparently  striving  to  make  them  omnipotent,  and  at  the 
same  time  most  securely  enthroned  Property  and  the  Prop- 
erty Classes.  They  deposed  George  the  Third,  but  placed  a 
Caesar  on  his  throne;  they  destroyed  the  House  of  Lords,  but 
erected  th«  Constitution  in  its  place;  they  gave  the  people  the 
privilege  of  choosing  their  rulers,  but  denied  them  the  right 
■of  controlling  their  acts;  they  divided  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment, but  placed  them  beyond  the  reach  of  the  people;  they 
made  a constitution,  but  practically  forbade  the  people  to 
change  or  construe  it.  In  short  they  probably  fooled  some  of 
themselves,  certainly  fooled  the  general  populace,  triple  pad- 
locked its  powers  and  bequeathed  the  key  thereof  to  you. 

“Besting  then  already  so  secure  from  effective  political 
revolution,  will  the  denial  of  the  ballot  to  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  people  further  enhance  that  security?  In  my 
opinion,  clearly  not.  The  only  reason  that  can  be  urged  foj; 
such  action,  is,  that  the  privilege  of  suffrage  tends  to  breed 
the  Spirit  of  Insubordination.  No  doubt  that  is  true.  But  I 
think  that  tendency  is  best  corrected  by  such  a continual 
frustration  of  their  hopes  from  political  action  as  will  teach 
them  finally  to  regard  the  ballot,  not  as  a public  means  of  es- 
tablishing public  measures  and  principles,  but  as  a personal 
privilege  by  means  of  which  very  narrow  personal  ends  at 
most  may  be  effected.  By  this  method  the  right-of-suffrage 
ceases  to  be  regarded  by  the  people  as  a palladium  of  liberty 
and  becomes  a very  cheap  and  common  thing;  too  cheap  and 
common  ever  to  breed  by  its  use  any  high  and  insubordinate 
spirit,  the  very  reverse  in  fact. 

“On  the  other  hand  there  are  many  reasons  that  cause  me 


130 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


to  regard  unrestricted  suffrage  as  a very  important  element  in 
the  present  and  future  security  of  your  Class.  The  wage-earn- 
ing classes  which  would  of  course  be  the  ones  cut  off  by  a re- 
stricted ballot  are  the  very  ones  over  whom  you  have  the  most 
control.  They  are  in  the  main  absolutely  dependent  upon  j'ou. 
They  are  to  all  intents  and  purposes  yours.  They  have  no  in- 
terests outside  their  job.  On  that  one  and  only  question  they 
are  as  intensely  conservative  as  you  could  desire.  Thej’  will 
vote  to  hold  their  job  when  they  will  vote  for  nothing  else 
under  the  sun.  Their  job  is  of  your  giving,  and  they  can  always 
be  brought  to  see  that  your  interests  are  theirs.  As  touching 
yoiir  interests  therefore  thej’  can  never  be  radical. 

“With  the  next  class  above  them,  the  small  property  own^ 
ers,  they  can  politically  have  nothing  in  common;  and  it  is  to 
this  class  to  whom  power  would  be  given  by  a restricted  suff- 
rage, a class  conservative  indeed  but  not  as  against  you;  and 
being  far  less  completel3^  and  directl}^  dependent  upon  .voUr 
they  would  be  far  more  dangerous  and  difficult  to  handle.  Cut 
off  the  wage-earners  politically  and  j’ou  cut  off  the  great  body 
of  your  own  retainers — a body  that  can  alwaj-s  be  effectively 
used  by  j’ou  against  the  middle  classes  politicallj'  as  surelj'  as- 
you  can  use  the  latter  against  the  former  phj'sicallj’. 

“And  lastlj',  j'ou  can  onlj'  keep  the  people  in  subjection  to 
you  by  keeping  a practical  majoritj"  of  them  dependent 
iipon  jmu,  by  keeping  their  knowledge  to  the  level  of  their  pur- 
suits and  bj-  keeping  up  a show  of  giving  them  the  measure  of 
‘rights’  which  the  age  and  the  civilization  under  which  they 
live  have  accustomed  t^em  to  regard  as  theirs.  To  state  it 
boldly  and  plainly',  j'ou  must  keep  them  dependents  poor;  you 
must  keep  them  ignorant,  and  j'ou  must  amuse  them  with  a 
bauble  of  ‘rights.’ 

“The  ballot  is  the  bauble  which  for  the  present  they  must 
keep.  But  gentlemen,  while  it  may  be  wise  to  allow  them  to  keep 
it,  it  wll  not  be  wise  to  allow  them  its  too  frequent  use.  I be- 
lieve in  a universal  suffrage  as  to  the  individuals  possessing  it, 
but  restricted  as  to  the  occasions  of  its  use.  There  lies  your 
safest  waj^  out  of  much  of  the  worrj’,  much  of  the  turmoil, 
much  of  the  expense  attendant  upon  the  political  control  of 
your  people.  Business  requires  it,  discipline  of  the  people  re- 
quires it,  decency,  comfort,  ease,  economy,  and  above  all,  our 
completest  safetj'  requires  it. 


/ 


POLITICAL  EEVOLUTION. 


131 


“Strong  arguments  are  from  time  to  time  urged  in  favor 
‘of  a change  in  the  tenure  of  the  Presidential  office.  Thc’se 
should  challenge  serious  consideration  and  attention,  t > the 
end  that  the  present  Constitutional  limit  may  be  removed  and 
a more  reasonable  and  useful  one  substituted.  Your  biisiness 
-and  other  important  interests  are  now  too  frequently  dis- 
turbed and  disquieted  by  the  turmoil  and  heat  of  a Presidential 
election.  Between  elections  the  people  are  without  even  the 
semblance  of  power.  During  these  periods  the  entire 
sovereignty  is  yielded  up  to  irresponsible  officials.  Double 
the  time  between  elections  and  you  divide  all  the  evils 
attendant  upon  them.  You  destroy  half  the  opportunities 
for  insubordination  and  quadruple  your  own  power.  Such 
a procedure  as  I suggest,  would  avoid  this  disturbance 
of  business  relations  which  now  comes  every  four  years 
and  would  do  away  with  a lot  of  useless  and,  to  you, 
•dangerous  agitation.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  add  that  a sub- 
stantial extension  of  the  Executive  tenure  may  easily  be  se- 
cured by  providing  at  the  same  time  for  the  ineligibility  of  m 
incumbent  to  succeed  himself — a measure  which  has  long  found 
favor  with  a large  class  of  our  people  as  a consummation  much 
to  be  desired,  and  which  seriously  threatens  to  interfere  with 
-our  designs  by  limiting  the  tenure  of  office  to  one  short  term 
of  four  years.  How  may  these  changes  be  accomplished?  By 
a simple  amendment  to  that  unchangeable  Constitution,  doub- 
ling the  term  of  office  established  therein. 

“And  I would  recommend  that  while  the  amendment  busi- 
ness is  up,  another  section  be  added,  reciting  that  neither  the 
police  powers  of  government  nor  the  right  of  eminent  domain 
shall  ever  be  exercised  to  the  direct  or  indirect  injury  or  de- 
struction of  established  private  industries  as  such.  This  will 
effectually  draw  the  great  properties  of  the  country  out  of  the 
range  of  political  action,  stopping  the  present  tendency  to- 
wards police  control  and  forever  settling  the  question  of  Pub- 
lic Ownership. 

“I  advise  you  however,  that  no  important  amendment  can 
be  made  to  our  constitution  by  ordinary  methods.  Practically 
there  has  never  been  a section  added  to  that  famous  instru- 
ment that  has  not  been  put  there  by  the  sword.  Of  its  fifteen 
amendments  in  more  than  a hundred  years,  twelve  were  really 
but  after- thoughts  of  the  generation  that  created  it;  the  re- 


1B2  ^ THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 

mainiBg’  three,  the  only  ones  that  may  be  called  amendments^ 
had  a bloody  birth.  The  times  of  course  have  changed  since 
then.  The  great  industrial  powers  of  the  present  had  then 
practically  no  existence  as  a controlling  factor  in  politics  and 
government.  But  great  as  those  powers  are,  and  potent  as  is 
their  influence,  I do  not  believe  that  even  the  simple  additions 
to  the  fundamental  law  of  the  land  suggested  can  be  made  ex- 
cept in  the  confusion  and  turmoil  of  civil  strife.  This  may  be 
comparatively  mimic  in  its  proportions,  should  be  entirely  the 
result  of  your  own  secret  manipulation,  and  brought  about  only 
when  the  entire  machinery  for  putting  them  through  shall  be- 
ready  for  action.  The  industrial  movements  which  you  contem- 
plate will  probably  be  sufficient  in  themselves  to  result  in  the 
state  of  disorder  desired  for  such  a purpose.  The  next  great 
strike  may  be  given  a quasi  political  significance  by  the  press, 
charged  in  part  to  the  secret  agitation  of  some  one  of  the  rev- 
olutionary political  parties  and  in  the  general  apprehension 
and  alarm  aroused  among  the  smaller  business  and  property 
classes,  the  thing  may  be  done  with  the  aid  of  jmur  retainers 
broken  in  organization  and  spirit  by  the  successful  suppres- 
sion of  their  impotent  rebellion. 

“In  my  opinion  the  Eeign  of  Property  is  already  assured 
in  this  country.  On  its  side  are  arraj’ed  all  the  organizing,  ed- 
ucating, civilizing  forces  of  the  age — the  press,  the  pulpit,  the 
bar,  the,  bench,  the  news  agencies  gathering,  transmitting,  dis- 
seminating or  suppressing  altogether,  and  the  government 
powers  themselves.  The  latter  are  identified  as  completely 
as  possible  with  the  great  business  interests  of  the  country, 
in  its  legislative,  executive  and  judicial  branches.  The  recom- 
mendations I have  made  but  assure  an  easier,  pleasanter, 
deeper,  more  permanent  flow  of  power  from  the  Fountain  of 
Property.  Property  can  never  be  dethroned,  you  may  depend 
upon  that.  It  is  entrenched  in  every  civilized  government  on 
the  globe  more  firmly  today  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  It  stretches  beyond  national  boundaries,  crosses 
and  recrosses  its  lines  of  interest  from  nation  to  nation,  and 
binds  governments  so  intimately  together  that  tacitly  there 
exists  among  them  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive  against 
the  hordes  of  discontent  and  Socialism  wherever  they  may  ap- 
pear upon  the  earth.  In  this  country  we  do  not  need  any  out- 


POLITICAL  EEVOLUTION. 


133' 


side  aid.  It  would  be  forthcoming  if  we  did;  but  happily  the 
task  before  us  is  an  easy  one.” 

Down  sat  Mephistopheles  with  the  same  stately  grace  with 
which  he  had  arisen.  Then  up  rose  one  after  another  of  the 
Cabal,  approving,  suggesting,  criticising.  Over  all  hovered  the 
spirit  of  mastery,  security  and  certain  success.  Result,  de- 
sired result,  was  but  a matter  of  detail  and  instructions  tO' 
subordinates. 

After  much  sharp  and  rapid  discussion  and  comparing  of 
plans,  it  was  decided  that  by  a systematic  and  concerted  em- 
ployment of  all  the  agents  industrial,  agitational  and  political 
at  their  command,  all  the  immediately  practical  in  the  advis- 
ory agents  suggestions  might  be  effected  in  a reasonably  short 
time,  not  later  than  the  next  Presidential  election.  Then 
or  before,  the  amendments  should  be  fixed  in  the  Constitution; 
labor  organizations  controlled  or  destroyed;  the  Industrial  So' 
cialists  “blown  from  the  guns;”  the  wage-class  reduced  to  a 
proper  wage-scale,  and  undesirable  agitation  and  unruly  agi- 
tators practically  suppressed,  the  required  “enactments”  and 
“constructions”  of  law  to  that  end  having  been  previously  se- 
cured. The  military  arm  of  the  government  should  be  strength- 
ened, armories  built,  arms  plants  extended,  the  arms  supply 
controlled,  and  the  army  and  national  guard  increased  in  num- 
bers and  efficiency  and  so  placed  and  handled  as  most  effectu- 
ally to  keep  the  i^opulace  in  subjection.  Various  committees 
were  appointed  to  perfect  and  direct  the  details  of  these  move- 
ments, and  the  advisory  agent  was  selected  to  be  the  first 
President  under  the  New  Regime. 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


Hc,4 


CHAPTER  XX. 


r 


THE  NEW  REGIME. 

HE  NEW  Regime!  The  New  Order  of  Things!  What 
was  it  to  be?  and  when?  and  how? 

Some  there  were  who  dreamed  of  crowns  and  cor- 
onets and  the  brilliant  pageantry  of  splendid  courts, 
glowing,  glittering  and  shining  over  and  around  and  through 
the  streets  of  beautiful  Washington,  democratic  Washington, 
phosj^horescent,  putrescent  Wa-shingdon;  with  a House  of  Lords 
in  the  north  end  of  the  Capitol  and  a House  of  Commons,  very 
common  Commons  in  the  south  end,  and  Windsor  Castle  “en- 
larged and  improved”  at  the  White  House,  through  whose  royal 
halls  should  sound  from  lackey  lip  to  lackey  lip  their  own 
princely  titles  nobly  carved  for  themselves,  by  themselves,  with 
the  sw’ord?  no,  barbarian!  with  the  milled  edge  of  the  almighty 
dollar. 

The  dream  of  wmmen,  this,  you  ask  dear  reader!  no,  sweet 
innocent!  of  many  brawny,  broadclothed  men  as  well  as  hun- 
dreds of  their  weakling  apes;  some  with  brains  and  some  with 
none,  but  all  with  that  false  ambition  for  the  show  and  power 
of  prideful  privilege  and  place,  which  the  surge  and  flow  of  a 
republic  made  so  uncertain  and  unstable  as  to  be  uncomforta- 
ble and  undignified  if  not  absolutelj^  ridiculous.  “1X110  in  a 
republic,”  asked  these  roj'alists  of  each  other,  “can  found  a 
‘house?’  who  can  build  up  and  establish  permanent  place  or 
position  for  one’s  children  and  his  children’s  children  to  even 
the  second  or  third  generation?  what  incentive  to  noble  action 
in  this  changing,  heaidng,  shifting,  evanescent  condition  of  so- 
cial and  political  life;  no  class  to  rise  out  of,  no  class  to  rise 
into,  no  stable  ‘orders,’  no  lasting  ‘honors;’  this  mulish  state, 
with  no  pride  of  ancestry,  no  hope  for  posterity? 

“Oh,  for  a fixed  ‘place,’  a secure  ‘position,’  an  heirloom  of 
privilege  and  power  for  me  and  mine,  for  us  and  ours.” 

No  selfishness  in  that,  you  see;  no  cruelty,  no  injustice 
for  you  and  yours,  for  the  people  and  theirs,  for  the  unnum- 
bered millions  shut  out  forever.  Not  for  these  ambitious  ones 
the  pride  of  ancestry,  that  the  grey  hairs  were  honest,  the 


THE  NEW  EEGIME. 


135 


hoary  head  honorable,  the  worn,  bent  frame  the  housing  of 
a man  who  loved  justice  and  truth  and  mercy  and  his  fellow- 
man,  and  “did  unto  others  as  he  would  they  should  do  unto 
him;”  not  for  them  the  “hope  for  posterity”  that  it  should  in- 
herit such  heirlooms  from  such  an  ancestry,  that  it  should 
hold  no  “place”  it  had  not  earned,  no  “position”  to  which  it 
had  no  right,  no  “privilege  and  power”  except  that  of  right- 
eous opportunity  to  do  the  best  and  be  the  noblest  permitted 
it  by  nature;  not  for  them  the  lasting  “honors,”  the  “stable 
orders,”  the  established  “classes”  of  justice,  truth  and  right; 
Oh,  no. 

And  yet  there  were  some  thousands,  some  few  thousands 
happily,  of  these  shriveled  souls,  with  these  worm-ripened 
ideals  and  hopes.  Not  often  did  the  people  hear  of  their  sen- 
timents. Not  often  were  they  spoken  outside  of  their  “set.” 
But  by  the  example  of  their  living  they  were  doing  what  they 
could  to  propagate  them,  and  they  were  not  without  power 
and  influence.  Many  of  the  trust  presidents  and  officials  as- 
sembled at  the  banquet  aud  many  more  of  the  capitalists  whom 
they  represented  would  have  hailed  with  delight  the  imme- 
diate prospect  of  an  American  monarchy.  They  only  regretted 
that  the  time  was  not  yet  quite  ripe  for  the  “coup  d’tat”  that 
should  effect  it,  and  comforted  themselves  meanwhile  with 
the  thought  that  it  was  surely  and  rapidly  coming.  “Yes, 
that,”  they  dreamed,  and  their  wives  and  sons  and  daughters 
and  their  sycophants  dreamed,  “was  the  new  regime.  But  not 
yet.” 

Some  good  and  true  and  patriotic  citizens  dreamed  it  too, 
fearingly  dreamed  it. 

Others  there  were  who  did  not  dream,  but  saw  or  thought 
they  saw  that  the  new  regime  was  but  the  old  intensified, - 
strengthened,  extended,  continued  indefinitely;  political  meth- 
ods more  and  more  “effective  and  practical;”  political  parties 
more  and  more  amenable  to  control  of  “leaders”  and  politB 
cians;  legislative  bodies  more  and  more  responsive  to  the  in- 
terests of  “business  and  property;”  the  judiciary  more  and 
more  conservative  of  the  “rights  of  capital;”  the  executive 
more  and  more  the  “special  agent  of  the  money  power;”  the 
press,  the  pulpit,  the  bar,  the  bench,  more  and  more  the  “or- 
gans of  wealth;”  the  riotous  mistakes  of  labor  more  and  more 
capital’s  opportunity  of  pegging  it  down  and  pegging  property 


136 


THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


up;  the  people  more  and  more  dependent,  subservient,  sub- 
missive, until  the  rule  of  the  dollar  is  undisputed  in  the  land, 
and  the  pathway  of  the  Oligarchy  of  Wealth  is  smoothed  of 
all  difficulties,  social,  industrial,  and  political.  To  this  number  be- 
longed a large  majority  of  the  “money  changers;”  the  man- 
agers of  industry,  the  stock  and  bond  holders  and  manipula- 
tors, the  politicians  and  the  professions  generallJ^  They  said 
to  each  other,  “Why  paint  the  lily  or  gild  refined  gold?  Why 
perilously  do  by  blundering  farce,  what  can  be  safely  done  bj 
finesse  and  stealth?  No  new  regime  except  the  old  for  a hun- 
dred years  and  more  at  least.” 

“No  new  regime,  aha!  we’ll  see,”  laughed  others  confidently 
who  knew  they  didn’t  dream,  but  saw,  not  “as  in  a glass, 
darkly,”  either,  but  as  “face  to  face.”  “Our  party  will  sweep 
the  country  this  campaign  and  then  you  il  see.  No  new  regime? 
aha!  watch  us  turn  the  rascals  out  and  our  own  honest  fel- 
lows in,  and  then  you’ll  see!  then,  ho,  for  high  tariff,  for  pros- 
perity, for  more  confidence,  for  a vigorous  foreign  policy,  for 
■expansion;  and  ho,  for  low  tariff,  for  more  coin,  for  sympathy 
for  the  man  in  the  moon;  down  with  the  trusts,  down  with 
imperialism!  ho,  for  the  Monroe  doctrine,  for  the  Nicaragua 
canal,  for  currency  reform,  for  rotation  in  office,  for  civil  ser- 
vice, for  undoing  what  the  other  fellows  ought  not  to  have 
■done,  and  doing  what  they  ought  to  have  done.  Ho,  for  the 
triumph  of  tw'eedledum!  ho,  for  the  downfall  of  tweedledee! 
no  new  regime?  Well,  what  name  will  you  give  to  that?” 

So  thought  and  lived  the  thought,  thousands  upon  thou- 
■sands  of  the  “old  party”  voters  in  town  and  country,  in  factory 
nnd  field  and  mine  and  farm,  blinded  by  the  prejudice  and  big- 
otry of  habit,  custom,  environment,  partisan  passion,  section 
and  narrow  self-interest;  so  thought  and  lived  the  thought 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  good  men  and  true,  who  though 
senseful  and  bright,  lived  in  the  narrow  circle  of  the  past, 
partly  from  wilfulness,  partly  from  lack  of  real  opportunity, 
to  know  of  a different  present,  and  partly  from  ignorance  of 
their  vital  need  to  know'  it.  But  their  wilfulness  was  growing 
less;  their  opportunities  greater;  and  their  Ignorance  en- 
lightened. Still  to  them,  in  wnning  hope  and  belief  however, 
the  new  administration  if  it  w'ere  THEIR  administration  was 
the  only  new'  regime  their  vision  could  discern. 

Passing  over  those  despairing  ones  to  whom  the  on-rush- 


THE  NEW  REGIME. 


13T 


ing  new  order  of  things  meant  the  sun  veiled  in  darkness  and 
the  moon  and  stars  in  blood,  the  earth  in  chaos  and  mankind 
in  everlasting  woe;  there  was  yet  another  class  to  whom  the 
new  regime  meant  a triumph  for  justice,  for  right  principle 
and  for  the  people;  a restriction  of  privilege,  an  enlargement 
of  just  opportunity.  To  them  it  meant,  that  the  reigning  forces 
of  corruption,  defilement  and  polhition  that  marked  industry, 
politics,  government  and  society,  growing  over-bold,  over-con- 
fident and  over-impudent  would  overleap  their  purpose  and 
by  some  audacious  movement  careless  and  contemptuous  of 
the  people,  reveal  their  hideousness,  hypocrisy  and  treason  and 
thereby  rouse  to  indignant  and  effective  action  an  outraged 
nation.  Whether  that  action  of  the  disallusioned  people  would 
be  of  force  and  arms  or  of  the  ballot,  they  did  not  know;  it 
depended  on  the  measure  of  confidence  among  the  adherents, 
of  entrenched  capital;  but  this  they  knew,  that  it  would  be  ef- 
fective, that  the  despotism  of  capital  would  be  forever  broken 
and  the  reign  of  rings  and  bosses,  political  and  plutocratic 
would  be  known  no  more  in  the  land;  for  the  causes  that  made 
them  possible  and  the  means  of  their  extirpation  were  being 
revealed  to  the  people,  and  the  tide  of  aroused-  indignation 
would  in  its  flood  carry  the  people  to  the  fullest  and  most  ef- 
fective reforms.  To  them  it  meant  a new  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, a New  Bill  of  Rights,  a New  Constitution,  a govern- 
ment of  the  People,  by  the  People  and  for  the  People,  indus- 
trial as  well  as  civil.  The  when  and  how  were  not  for  them 
to  forechoose  or  foresee.  A power  mightier  than  they  or  the 
opposition  would  determine  that;  but  when  it  came,  that 
would  be  the  New  Regime. 

Those  who  actually  held  to  this  belief  were  not  many  as. 
compared  with  the  multitude  of  the  people,  neither  were  they- 
powerful,  industrially  or  politically;  but  they  did  what  they 
could  to  hasten  the  glad  hour  that  should  ring  out  the  old 
and  ring  in  the  new.  They  were  not  always  united  in  the  has- 
tening methods  they  undertook,  but  their  one  object  was  tu 
bring  the  Thought,  the  Idea,  the  Principle  of  the  Coming  Ref-. 
ormation  as  clearly  and  rapidly  as  possible  before  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  people. 

In  the  organization  of  labor  into  trades  unions,  in  the  up- 
building of  a political  party,  in  educational  agitation,  in  induS' 
trial  association,  in  a hundred  ways  they  labored  but  alwaj's. 


138 


THE  CONSPIEACY  OF  CAPITAL. 


steadily  towards  the  same  object — the  Kesponsible  Administra- 
tion of  Industrial  Power.  And  they  believed  that  the  leaven 
was  working,  that  the  people  unconsciously  even  to  themselves 
were  absorbing  and  assimilating  the  doctrine  more  perhaps 
from  the  example  and  oppression  of  capitalism  than  from  their 
own  direct  teachings;  and  that  as  the  match  to  the  fuse  and 
the  fuse  to  the  mine,  so  would  the  provocation  and  the  oppor- 
tunity be  to  the  present  Order  of  Things.  The  most  they  could 
do  would  be  to  prepare  and  be  ready  to  help  shape  the  Xew 
Order  upon  the  principles  truest  to  justice  and  good  govern- 
ment for  all. 

The  action  determined  upon  at  the  Cabal  of  the  Trusts 
was  already  bearing  fruit.  In  the  deepening  distress  and  fer- 
ment among  the  people  an  experienced  eye  could  detect  the 
results  of  a systematic  movement  in  some  powerful  quarter 
that  was  steadily  driving  towards  some  fore-determined  ob- 
ject. The  arbitrary  reduction  of  wages  in  first  one  industry 
controlled  by  the  trusts  and  then  in  another  and  another;  the 
skill  and  judgment  shown  in  selecting  the  time  and  place  and 
industry  to  be  affected,  making  ineffective  and  vain  the  pro- 
tests and  strikes  of  the  helpless  employes;  the  closing  of  shops 
and  shutting  down  of  factories  now  here,  now  there,  on  plausi- 
ble but  specious  pretenses;  the  wide  range  of  industries  af- 
fected, all  clearly  betokened  that  Design  was  at  work  in  the 
first  great  movement  against  the  people. 


I 


THE  END. 


BOOKS  TO  READ. 


BOOKS  TO  READ. 


5c  Books. 


Trusts  J.  A.  Wayland 

A Study  in  Government  H.  E.  Allen 

Christ,  Property  and  Man  Rev.  Breeze 

Socialist  Cartoons  and  Comments Warren 

Bad  Boy,  illustrated  E.  A.  Stockweli 

Municipal  Socialism  Gordon 

Socialism  and  Farmers  Simons 

Property  Pyburn 

Utopia  Thomas  Moore 

Ten  Men  of  Money  Island  

Liberty  Debs 

Prison  Labor  Debs 

Government  Ownership  of  Railroads Gordon 

The  Evolution  of  the  Class  Struggle 

Imprudent  Marriages  Blatchford 

Packingtown  A.  M.  Simons 

Wage  Labor  and  Capital  Karl  Marx 

Poems  for  the  People  

The  Mission  of  the  Working  Class Vail 

Socialist  Songs,  adapted  to  familiar  tunes 

How  I Acquired  My  Millions 

The  Man  Under  the  Machine  Simon.s 

After  Capitalism,  What  

Woman  and  the  Social  Problem 

The  Axe  at  the  Root.  .William  Thurston  Brown 

Plutocracy  or  Nationalism,  Which? Bellamy 

The  Real  Religion  of  Today.. Rev.  W.  T.  Brown 

Decoy  Ducks  and  Quack  Remedies 

Leon  Greenbaum 

Why  I Am  a Socialist  Geo.  D.  Herron 

Evolution  of  Industry Watkins 

Socialism  and  Slavery Hyndman 

Land,  Machinery  and  Inheritance Pyburn 

The  American  Farmer Gordon 

Panics,  Cause  and  Cure Gordon 

Labor,  the  Creator  of  Capital Pyburn 

The  Water  Tank  Bellamy 

The  Social  Conscience 

Why  Working  Men  Should  Be  Socialists 

Why  Railroad  Men  Should  Be  Socialists 

Why  Working  Men  Should  Be  Socialists 

Title  Deeds  to  Land  Spencer 

Socialism  Simons 

Wanted — A New  Conscience 

Wilshlre 

The  Man  Under  the  Machine Simons 

New  Zealand  in  a Nutshell  

What  the  Socialists  Would  Do  A.  M.  Simons 

A Political  Quack  Doctor W.  A.  Corey 

A Possible  Twentieth  Century  Trust Grey 

$t.50  Worth  of  (A.bo’ve  Books  for $l .00 


BOOKS  TO  BEAD. 


lOc.  Books. 


Socialism  and  the  Labor  Problem McGrady 

Coming  Civilization Hedrick 

Uncle  Sam  in  Business  

Public  Ownership  of  Railroads 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  Hand  

To  What  Are  the  Trusts  Leading Smiley 

Merrie  England  Blatchford 

The  Labor  Question  Kuenemann 

Pendragon  Posers  

Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scientific Engels 

No  Compromise  Liebknecht 

The  Drift  of  Our  Time Parsons 

The  Secret  of  the  Rothschilds 

Seven  Financial  Conspiracies Emery 

In  Hell  and  the  Way  Out Allen 

A Philosophy  of  Happiness  

The  Outlook  for  the  Artisan  and  His  Art  

Scientific  Socialism  Beresford 

Socialism  Liebknecht 

Was  It  Garcia’s  Fault  

The  Right  to  Be  Lazy  Paul  Lafargue 


I5c.  Books. 


Social  Democracy  Red  Book Heath 

Natioal  Ownership  of  Railroads Vail 

A Tramp  in  Society 

Guernsey  Market  House  Plan  of  Payments 


25c.  Books. 


Modern  Socialism  Vail 

A Story  Prom  Pullmantown 

Man  or  Dollar,  Which 

Horace  Greeley,  Farmer,  Editor,  Socialist 

President  John  Smith  

A Perplexed  Philosopher  George 

$t.50  Worth  of  Aho’ve  Books  for  $1,00 


BOOKS  TO  READ. 


iii 


Protection  or  Free  Trade  

The  Land  Question,  Property  in  Land  and  the 

Condition  of  Labor,  (1  Tol.) George 

Progress  and  Poverty  George 

Woman— Past,  Present  and  Future  

Modern  Socialism  

Rational  Money  

■Government  Ownership  of  Railroads  and  Tel- 


egraph   Louck 

Evolutionary  Politics  Mills 

The  Co-Opolitan  

National  Party  Platforms  Frederick 


Fabian  Essays  in  Socialism  

News  From  Nowhere  

Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages 

The  Banker’s  Dream  

History  of  the  Paris  Commune  Benham 

Socialism  John  Stewart  Mill 

The  Future  Commonwealth 

The  Concentration  of  Wealth  

In  Brighter  Climes  

■Caesar’s  Column  Donnelly 


50c,  Books. 


Christ,  the  Socialist  

A Financial  Catechism Brice  and  Vincent 

Volney’s  Ruins  C.  F.  Volney 

Looking  Backward  Edward  Bellamy 

Equality  Edward  Bellamy 

Whither  Are  We  Drifting F.  O.  Willey 

Waiting  For  the  Signal  (paper)... H.  O.  Morris 

The  Legal  Revolution  of  1902 

The  American  Plutocracy  M.  W.  Howard 

If  Christ  Came  to  Congress  ..M.  W.  Howard 

The  New  Zealand  Labor  Laws 

The  Millennial  Kingdom  W.  A.  Redding 

The  Co-Operative  Commonwealth..  L.  Gronlund 

The  City  for  the  People  Parsons 

What’s  to  Be  Done  Tehernychewsky 

Nequa  Adams 

Politics  of  the  Nazarene Jones 

$t .50  Worth  of  Abonfe  ^ooks  for$t.00 


BOOKS  TO  READ. 


Cloth  Bound  Books. 


The  Labor  Movement  in  America — Ely 1.50 

Problems  ot  Today — Ely  1.50 

Taxation  in  American  Cities — Ely 1.75 

Social  Aspects  of  Christianity — Ely 90 

Social  Reform  and  the  Church — Commons..  .75 

Proportional  Representation — Commons 1.75 

Between  Caesar  and  Jesus — Herron; 

paper,  40  cents;  cloth 75 

Municipal  Monopolies — Bemis  2.00 

Sociaiism  and  Social  Reform— Ely 1..50 

Equality— Bellamy  1.25 

Looking  Backward— Bellamy  1.00 

Christ,  the  Socialist 75 

Wealth  Against  Commonwealth 1.00 

A Traveler  From  Altruria 1.50 

Labor  Co-Partnership — Lloyd  1.00 

Socialism  from  Genesis  to  Revelations 

Sprague  1.00 

The  New  Economy — Gronlund  1.25 

Things  as  They  Are — Hall  1.25 

The  Railroad  Question — Larrahee  60 

Nequa — Adams  1.00 


Address  all  orders  to 

appeal  to  Reason, 


Girard,  Kansas,  U.  S.  A 


What  is  Socialism? 


Some  people  have  queer  ideas  of  what  Socialism  means.  They  con- 
found it  with  anarchy,  disorder,  dividing  up  property  and  other  absurd 
statements.  For  the  benefit  of  such,  the  definitions  from  dictionaries 

and  world-famous  men  are  here  appended; 


The  ethics  of  Socialism  are  identical  with  the  ethics  of  Christianity.— 
"Encyclopedia  Brittanica. 

Socialism  is  simply  applied  Christianity;  the  Golden  Rule  applied  to 
^very^^v  ’ ,fe. — Prof.  Ely. 

Th^  eepest  depths  of  vulgarism  is  that  of  setting  up  money  as  the  ark 
of  the  covenant. — Thomas  Carlyle. 

Socialism  being  the  product  of  social  evolution,  the  only  danger  lies 
in  obstructing  it. — Rev.  P.  M.  Sprague. 

The  whole  aim  of  and  purpose  of  Socialism  is  a closer  union  of  social 
factors.  The  present  need  is  growth  in  that  direction.— R.  T.  Ely. 

Socialism  is  the  idea  and  hope  of  a new  society  founded  on  industrial 
peace  and  forethought,  aiming  at  a new  and  higher  life  for  all  men. — 
William  Morris. 


The  abolition  of  that  individual  action  on  which  modern  societies  de- 
pend, and  the  substitution  of  a regulated  system  of  co-operative  action.— 
Imperial  Dictionary. 

Government  and  co-operatio*  are  in  all  things  and  eternally,  the  laws 
of  life;  anarchy  and  cempetition,  eternally  and  in  all  things,  the  laws  of 
death. — John  Ruskin. 

A theory  of  society  that  advocates  a more  precise,  orderly  and  harmo- 
nious arrangement  of  the  social  relations  of  mankind  than  that  which  has 
hitherto  prevailed. — Webster. 


A science  of  reconstructing  society  on  entirely  new  basis,  by  substitut- 
ing the  principle  of  association  for  that  of  competition  in  every  branch  ef 
industry. — Worcester’s  Dictionary. 

No  thinking  man  will  contradict  that  associated  industry  is  the  most 
Til  agent  of  production  and  that  the  principles  of  association,'  are 
’e  of  further  and  beneficial  development. — John  Stuart  Mill. 

does  not  wish  to  abolish  private  property  or  accumulation  of 
aims  to  displace  the  present  system  of  private  capital  by  a 
fectlve  capital,  which  would  introduce  a unified  organization 
&hor. — Prof.  Schafile. 

^er  of  Socialism  to  the  capitalist  is  that  Society  can  do  without 
society  now  does  without  the  slave  owner  and  the  feudal  lord, 
formerly  regarded  as  necessary  to  the  well  being  and  even  the 
.dstence  of  society. — Prof.  W.  Clarke, 
ne  citizens  of  a large  nation,  industrially  organized,  have  reached 
^eir  happiness  when  the  producing,  distributing  and  other  activities  are 
• ;ch  that  each  citizen  finds  in  them  a place  for  all  his  energies  and  apti- 
tudes, while  he  obtains  the  means  of  satisfying  all  of  his  desires. — Herbert 
Spencer. 


A theory  of  policy  that  aims  to  secure  the  reconstruction  of  society. 
Increase  of  wealth,  and  a more  equal  distribution  of  the  products  of  labor 
through  the  public  collective  ownership  of  labor  and  capital  (as  distin- 
guished from  property)  and  the  public  collective  management  of  all  indus- 
tries. Its  motto  is,  “Every  one  according  to  his  deeds.” — Standard  Dic- 
tionary. 


Any  theory  or  system  of  local  organization  which  would  abolish  en- 
tirely or  in  a great  part,  the  Individual  effort  and  competition  on  which 
motRjm  ^society  rests,  and  substitute  co-operation;  would  Introduce  a mor« 
perfect  and  equal  distribution  of  the  products  of  labor,  and  would  mak» 
land  and  capital,  as  the  instruments  of  production,  the  Joint  possession 
of  the  community. — Century  Dictionary. 


'■■V’y- 


V 


A Movement  Which  Supports  a Paper  With  a Circulation  of  Orcr 


175,000 


Copies 
Per  Week 


And  in  One  Year  Circulates 


694,381 


Books  and 
Pamphlets 


Must  hare  something  back  of  it  to  enlist  the  number  of  American 
citizens  necessary  to  carry  on  this  stupendous  work — work  accom- 
pushed  during  the  past  summer  months  by  the  Appeal  to  Reason  and 
i^lts  army  of  workers.  The  Appeal  stands  for  constructlye  Socialism — 
the  Socialism  which  means  the  economic  and  industrial  freedom  of 
the  world. 


A postal  card  will  bring  you  a sample  copy  of  this  remarkable 
paper,  which  stands  without  a peer  in  the  arena  of  political  joumal-^ 
ism  In  this  country. 


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